The lack of transparency in the July 28 elections in Venezuela and the absence of evidence to support the official result that indicated the victory of dictator Nicolás Maduro show that the country’s democratic system has collapsed, warned this Tuesday (20) Francisco Guerrero, secretary for Strengthening Democracy of the Organization of American States (OAS).
“In what electoral process in the world can you wait three weeks to know the evidence that guarantees a result? Nowhere else in the world. What this confirms is that the democratic system in Venezuela has collapsed,” Guerrero, who is participating in the 17th Inter-American Meeting of Electoral Authorities (RAE) in the city of Luque, Paraguay, told EFE.
For him, Venezuelans decided “in the opposite direction” to the results released by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which made Maduro’s victory for a third term official, a result questioned by the opposition and a large part of the international community.
Guerrero also considered that the CNE “was characterized as being in the hands of the Nicolás Maduro regime.”
The Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the largest Venezuelan opposition coalition, considered the results announced by the CNE to be fraudulent and claims that its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, was the true winner of the elections.
Guerrero highlighted that the “lack of electoral independence” in Venezuela, as well as the “lack of political capacity” of the Maduro government “to recognize what the people really said at the polls, is what generated this crisis”.
In this context, the OAS delegate emphasized the importance of “electoral authorities that are autonomous, that are independent, that do not respond to the dictates of the powerful or interest groups.”
At the opening of the meeting, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro said in a video that the organization will continue to “fight for the return of democracy in Venezuela.”
“The goal continues to be a democratic future, without political persecution, with full respect for fundamental rights,” said Almagro, who called on electoral authorities to ensure that all voices and votes are validated.
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