OAS Secretary General believes it is imperative that Maduro accept his defeat or that new elections be held

The New Century

Asuncion, IP Agency.– LThe Office of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States issued a statement on the elections in Venezuela in which it considers it “imperative” to know about Nicolas Maduro’s acceptance of the records held by the opposition and consequently accept his electoral defeat. Failure to do so would require new elections, it states.

The statement on the electoral process in Venezuela was published this Tuesday accompanied by the Report of the Secretariat for the Strengthening of Democracy/Department of Cooperation and Electoral Observation.

“Throughout this electoral process, the Venezuelan regime has been applying its repressive scheme, complemented by actions aimed at completely distorting the electoral result, making it open to the most aberrant manipulation. This manipulation continues to this day,” the statement said.

Regarding the election result, he maintains that, taking into account that the opposition campaign command has already presented the minutes by which it would have won the election and Maduro’s government, including the CNE, has not yet been able to present the minutes by which it would have won (….) it is imperative to know about Maduro’s acceptance of the minutes in the hands of the opposition and consequently accept his electoral defeat and open the way to the return to democracy in Venezuela.

“Failure to do so would require new elections, but in this case with the EOMs of the European Union and the OAS present and a new CNE to reduce the margin of institutional irregularity that plagued this process,” he says.

The Office of the Secretary General says that the Maduro regime has mocked important actors in the international community during these years and has once again gone through an electoral process without guarantees or mechanisms and procedures to enforce those guarantees.

«We must bear in mind that, with regard to audits, the regime is at least 11 years behind, when it committed itself to UNASUR (in a meeting on April 18, 2013 in Lima) to carry out a 100% audit of the minutes of the electoral process of April 14, 2013. It is obvious to say that this was never carried out. It is obvious that a new mockery would be unacceptable,» he adds.