(United Nations) The handling of the results of the disputed presidential election in Venezuela by the National Electoral Council (CNE) did not respect the “elementary measures of transparency and integrity” necessary for “credible” elections, UN experts said in a report published Tuesday.
Published at 7:23 a.m. Updated at 9:46 p.m.
At the invitation of the CNE, a group of four UN electoral experts was deployed to Venezuela to monitor the July 28 poll and report their observations internally to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Following the growing international criticism following the contested re-election of President Nicolás Maduro in this election in which the opposition claims victory, the UN finally published the preliminary report of these experts on Tuesday evening.
“The CNE’s process of processing the results fell short of basic transparency and integrity measures that are essential for holding credible elections,” the experts said, noting that the council had failed to follow “national legal and regulatory provisions.”
They particularly point out the lack of publication of results by polling station.
The CNE ratified the victory of outgoing President Nicolás Maduro with 52% of the vote in early August, without publishing the exact count and the minutes of the polling stations, claiming to have been the victim of computer hacking.
“According to the group’s experience [d’experts]the announcement of election results without publication of details or tabulated results to candidates has no precedent for contemporary democratic elections,” the report laments.
“This had a negative impact on the confidence in the result announced by the CNE among a large part of the Venezuelan electorate,” he adds.
The experts note that they initially had the cooperation of the authorities and the CNE, but from the close of the poll on July 28, they were “unfortunately”, despite their request, unable to meet with the officials of the Electoral Council before their departure.
The group, which specifies that it did not conduct an electoral observation mission as such, will continue to monitor the process remotely, in particular the appeals filed.
