The Workers’ Party (PT), the largest left-wing party in Latin America and led by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, described Sunday’s elections in Venezuela as “democratic and sovereign” and considered President Nicolás Maduro “re-elected.”
Although Lula’s government has not yet recognized Maduro’s victory and says it will make a statement when the full results are released, his party, in a statement from its executive leadership, took the Venezuelan president’s reelection as a fact.
“The PT salutes the Venezuelan people for the electoral process that took place on Sunday in a peaceful, democratic and sovereign day,” according to the note from the “National Executive” of the ruling party in Brazil.
Regarding the accusations that fraud occurred in Venezuela, the PT said it was certain that the National Electoral Council, “which proclaimed the victory of President Nicolás Maduro,” would respectfully treat all the appeals it receives, within the timeframes and under the terms provided for by the Venezuelan constitution.
What the group expects
He added that what matters now, with the electoral dispute over, is that Maduro, “now re-elected,” maintains dialogue with the opposition to overcome Venezuela’s serious problems, which he attributed to the “illegal sanctions” imposed on the Caribbean country.
“The PT will remain vigilant in order to contribute, to the extent of its ability, to ensure that the problems of Latin America and the Caribbean are addressed by the peoples of the region, without any type of violence or external interference,” the note concludes.
Although Lula’s government also celebrated the “peaceful nature” of the elections, it said it would wait for all the results to be in before commenting on the victory attributed by the electoral authorities to President Maduro.
Need for verification
In a statement released on Monday, the government said that “the principle of popular sovereignty must be observed through impartial verification of the results” and added that Brazil “awaits, in this context,” the publication of all the data “detailed by voting table.”
This last requirement, according to the statement, is “an indispensable step for the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the outcome of the electoral dispute.”
Lula’s advisor on international affairs, former foreign minister Celso Amorim, who traveled to Caracas as an observer for the Brazilian government, met on Monday afternoon with Maduro, who, according to what he told the newspaper O Globo, promised to deliver the electoral records “in the next few days.”
Bulletin of the Venezuelan CNE
According to the only bulletin issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela before declaring Maduro’s victory, with nearly 80% of the tables counted, the president was re-elected with 51.2% of the votes, compared to 44.2% obtained by the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
The opposition, which has called for street marches to protest against possible fraud, claims to have received more than 40% of the minutes of the process, with which, it claims, the partial result awarded González Urrutia 70% of the votes, compared to 30% for Maduro.
Brasilia / EFE
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2024-07-30 14:58:35
