Venezuela’s top election official has charged that last month’s election results “showed a serious lack of transparency and veracity” and criticized authorities for declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner despite strong evidence presented by the opposition and doubts expressed by several foreign governments.
Juan Carlos Delpino is one of five members of the National Electoral Council (CNE in Spanish) and the only one who has spoken out against the Maduro regime’s wishes before the vote.
He posted a letter on social media on Monday detailing alleged irregularities that took place before and on election day on July 28. He said polling stations were slow to report results from voting machines and several opposition volunteers were expelled, in violation of election rules that guarantee transparency in the tally to CNE headquarters.
Del Pino said he was informed that the hours-long delay was likely due to a hack of the CNE platform, and that only 58% of the votes had been tallied. In protest, he said he had decided not to monitor the results from the CNE data hub or join his fellow rectors at the late-night press conference where CNE president Elvis Amoroso, a ruling party ally, declared Maduro the winner.
Venezuelans will continue to fight for democracy. They have no choice.
“We deeply regret that the results of these elections have not served the Venezuelan people, have not resolved differences or promoted national unity, but have instead heightened doubts among the majority of Venezuelans and the international community,” Del Pino wrote.
Del Pino, an election expert close to Venezuela’s traditional opposition parties, was appointed to the CNE last year by the National Assembly, which is controlled by Maduro’s allies, after several predecessors were ousted.
The letter comes as President Maduro continues to insist that he won re-election by more than a million votes. His government has ignored requests from the United States, the European Union and leftist allies in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to release voting records that support those claims.
FILE – Officials from the National Electoral Commission (CNE), from left, Acme Nogal, Juan Delpino, Antonio Meneses, Elvis Hidrobo Amoroso, Rosalba Gil and Carlos Quintero, hold a closed-door meeting at CNE headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela, on August 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubilos, File)
Meanwhile, the opposition party published online what it believed to be a genuine tally from 80 percent of the voting machines, reporting that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had won by a margin of more than 2-to-1.
Venezuela’s Supreme Court last week certified the election results and said the vote count posted online by the opposition was faked. Attorney General Tarek William Saab ordered Gonzalez to testify this week in a criminal investigation into his alleged attempts to spread panic in the South American country by contesting the election results.
President Gonzalez said Sunday he would not comply with the decree, saying his legitimate rights and Venezuela’s Constitution were being trampled on and that the only authority he is accountable to is the voters. He reiterated his call for Maduro to release the voting records of the country’s roughly 30,000 voting machines and allow international experts to independently verify the results.
“Venezuela is living in a time of uncertainty and insecurity because you are trying to trample the desire for change,” Gonzalez said in a video posted to social media, addressing Maduro directly. “The publication of the results is a guarantee of peace.”
Gonzalez, a former diplomat, and his main backer, opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, went into hiding after the election as security forces cracked down on nationwide demonstrations against the results, arresting more than 2,000 people.
The two called on Venezuelans to take to the streets on Wednesday to mark one month since their alleged electoral victory.
Meanwhile, several mothers arrested by security forces gathered Monday outside a maximum security prison in central Venezuela where dozens of detainees began being transferred under the transfer order. Holding signs that read “They are not terrorists” and “Free our children,” several said their loved ones had been arrested far from the anti-Maduro demonstrations.
Eliana Perez said her two adult children had returned home from work and were sitting in their car when they were arrested at a police checkpoint.
“There were no traffic restrictions, no curfews,” Perez said, fighting back tears. “They’ve never had any problems with the law before, so they’re suffering.”
DelPino told The New York Times in an interview Monday that he, too, was in hiding.
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His letter also highlighted a number of irregular decisions by the CNE, including a lack of pre-vote meetings that made it difficult to establish clear rules for the participation of campaign workers, international observers and the millions of Venezuelans living abroad.
