Fraud Accusations Over Voting Polls In Venezuela

Recent elections in the South American country have triggered protests from opposition, after allegations about at least one million wrong votes

The new assembly in Venezuela risks to be blocked after mass fraud, as the opposition coalition has already announced mass protests against the Socialist party here.

At the same time, representatives from 40 countries have declared that they would not recognize the new power in the country, while claiming the elections were an attempt of Nicolás Maduro to manipulate the state and the constitution after the assembly’s interests, despite the president’s comments on peace, political and economical crisis.

“The constituent assembly is the change so that this country can regain order. Anarchy is over, here. Justice will come starting tomorrow,” Cilia Flores, Maduro’s wife declared, after her investment as a member of the new assembly.

According to the technological platform providing Venezuela’s voting results, at least 1 million votes on Sunday were wrong.

“We know, without any doubt, that the turnout of the recent election for a national constituent assembly was manipulated. We estimate the difference between the actual participation and the one announced by authorities is at least 1m votes,” Antonio Mugica, the CEO of Smartmatic, commented.

Yet, the electoral council president, Tibisay Lucena, claims the figures are actually much higher, going up to 8 million people, while the opposition denounced 2 to 3 million wrong votes.

Lucena dismissed Mugica’s electoral counting, due to the fact that “a company located outside the country does not guarantee the transparency and credibility of the Venezuelan electoral system.”

Leader of the opposition Julio Borges called the fraud “the most serious crime that can be committed against democracy”, while the EU has already called for sanctions.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s representative for foreign affairs, commented that “the effective installation of the constituent assembly should be suspended and the attributions of all institutions foreseen by the constitution should be explicitly recognized. The European Union and its member states are ready to gradually step up their response in case democratic principles are further undermined and the Venezuelan constitution is not respected,” but she failed to apply her proposals.

Immediate reactions on the election fraud also came from UK, Argentina and Chile.

Source: theguardian.com