MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US says González Urrutia won the Venezuelan elections

The State Secretary recalled that the results announced by the opposition would corroborate the exit polls and the conclusions of independent observers

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted Thursday that opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia had won Sunday's elections in Venezuela despite the National Electoral Council (CNE) announcing that the incumbent Nicolás Maduro had prevailed with 51.2% of the vote to 44.2%.

Blinken issued a statement on Thursday assuring that based on “overwhelming evidence,” Washington concluded González Urrutia was the winner of the July 28 presidential elections in Venezuela.

Caracas is still to release the minutes of each polling table backing up the CNE's bulletin. In lack thereof, suspicion of fraud keeps mounting.

“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States, and especially to the Venezuelan people, that Edmundo González Urrutia won the majority of votes in Venezuela's presidential election on July 28,” Bliken noted.

The United States called on the parties involved in the Venezuelan crisis to address a transition process that respects the wishes of the electoral outcome and said it will support a process of “reestablishing democratic norms” in Venezuela.

Blinken took for valid the results released by disenfranchised opposition leader María Corina Machado representing 80% of the polling stations and showing that González Urrutia “received the majority of votes with an insurmountable margin.” The State Secretary recalled that those minutes had been “received directly from the polling stations all over Venezuela” and would corroborate the exit polls and the conclusions of independent observers and quick counts.

“Since Election Day, we have consulted intensively with partners and allies around the world and, despite the fact that each country has taken different paths to respond, none has concluded that Nicolás Maduro has received the majority of votes,” Blinken underlined.

He also argued that the CNE's “quick” statement Sunday “came without any evidence to support it” and the body “has not published disaggregated data and any minutes yet”, despite international calls to do so. In addition, the Carter Center found that the “elections did not conform to ”international parameters and standards for electoral processes.“

”As reported by the Carter Center's independent observation mission, the failure of the CNE to provide official results at the district level, as well as irregularities throughout the process, have stripped the result announced by the CNE of any credibility,“ Blinken noted.

The Venezuelan opposition believed that González Urrutia obtained close to 70% of the vote, against Maduro's 30%.

The Chavist leader told the United States to ”get its nose out of Venezuela because the sovereign people are the ones in charge.”