Brazil’s electoral court will not send observers to Venezuela’s elections

The decision was announced this Wednesday by the TSE / Photo: Courtesy

Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on Wednesday decided not to send observers to Venezuela’s presidential elections on Sunday after President Nicolas Maduro questioned the reliability of the Brazilian electoral system.

“In light of the false statements against Brazilian electronic voting booths, which, contrary to what the Venezuelan authorities claim, are auditable and secure, the Superior Electoral Court will not send technicians…” the court said in a statement.

Maduro said Tuesday that the electoral voting systems of Brazil, the United States and Colombia were not auditable while Venezuela’s was the best in the world.

“In Brazil, not a single ballot is verified,” Maduro told a crowd that accompanied him, then praised the Venezuelan electoral system, which, he said, “performs real-time verification of 54% of the ballot boxes.”

“Where else in the world do they do that? In the United States? The electoral system is unauditable. In Brazil? They don’t audit a single record. In Colombia? They don’t audit a single record,” Maduro said.

The Venezuelan president’s words caused Brazil’s highest electoral court to reverse the invitation that the Venezuelan entity of the same name had extended to him.

In its statement, the organization said it is “unacceptable” to discredit with lies the “seriousness and integrity” of elections and electronic voting booths in Brazil.

Last week, the TSE accepted the invitation from the Venezuelan electoral court to participate in Sunday’s elections, which it had rejected a month earlier without giving any explanation.

So far, the only confirmed Brazilian observer in the Venezuelan elections is the former foreign minister and special advisor to the current government in that area, Celso Amorin, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this week in a press conference with foreign correspondents.

Maduro’s attack on the Brazilian electoral system came the day before, a day after Lula said he was frightened by the Venezuelan’s statements about a “bloodbath” if he is defeated in the elections and in which he recommended that Maduro “learn to lose.”

Caracas / EFE