Montevideo. Former Uruguayan President Jose “Pepe” Mujica said he has “doubts” about the outcome of Sunday’s elections in Venezuela, given that “there is no credible information” about the vote count.
“I will speak publicly about Venezuela later, when there is more information. But right now there is no credible information about what happened in the elections anywhere, neither on one side nor the other,” the former Uruguayan president said in statements to the weekly Búsqueda.
Mujica said he had “doubts” about the figures released early Monday by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE), which declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner, and explained that his position is similar to that of the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
On Monday, the Brazilian government highlighted the peaceful nature of the presidential elections in Venezuela, but insisted that the publication of the minutes with the data of each table is a basic requirement to recognize the legitimacy of the vote.
In a controversial announcement, after several hours of delay, the CNE reported on Monday that after scrutiny of 80 percent of the votes, the current president, Nicolás Maduro, obtained 51.2 percent of the votes, against 44.2 percent for the opposition candidate Edmundo González, of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD, center).
The electoral body justified the delay by an alleged cyber attack that had forced the transmission of data to be delayed.
Since then, the CNE has not provided any further information on the vote count.
The figures were rejected by the opposition coalition, which announced González as “president-elect.”
Most governments in the region also rejected the CNE figures and demanded that the Venezuelan authorities provide full access to the records as a condition for recognizing Maduro’s alleged victory.
Colombia asks Venezuela to release the minutes with electoral results
Colombia on Tuesday asked Venezuela to clear up any doubts about the results of the presidential election in Venezuela by releasing all the minutes with the final results for the world to hear.
“For peace in Venezuela, we need to know all the minutes of the final results and have them audited by the world,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo in a statement.
“The international community and the Venezuelan people expect transparency and electoral guarantees for all sectors to prevail, and it is also extremely important to clear up any doubts about the vote count,” the diplomat added.
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– 2024-07-31 00:19:51
