The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) is meeting this Friday in an extraordinary session to vote on a new draft resolution on the post-electoral crisis in Venezuela that calls for the “expeditious” publication of the voting records.
The NTN24 television news channel reported on Friday part of the draft resolution, which, according to the OAS, is sponsored by the United States, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Suriname and Uruguay.
According to NTN24, the sponsors of the text ask the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela to promptly publish “the minutes with the results of the presidential election vote at the level of each polling station and to respect the fundamental principle of popular sovereignty through an impartial verification of the results that guarantees the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the electoral process.”
They also demand “protecting and preserving all equipment used in the electoral process, including all printed minutes and results, in order to safeguard the entire chain of custody of the voting process,” according to the channel.
This project follows another on the situation in Venezuela following the July 28 elections, which was put to a vote in the OAS Permanent Council on July 31 and did not have sufficient support to be approved.
On that occasion, 17 countries voted in favor, 0 against, 11 abstained and 5 delegations were absent.
The new draft resolution, NTN24 says, is the result of a negotiation session held on Tuesday, August 13, and contains amendments received subsequently.
Venezuela has been experiencing an anomalous and critical situation since July 28, as the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolás Maduro, the current president, the winner, but without publishing the voting records table by table, something that the opposition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) did do on a website to support its claim that its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won by a wide margin.
A panel of UN experts who were in Venezuela from late June to August 2 concluded that the Venezuelan electoral authorities’ handling of results following the July 28 elections lacked “basic measures of transparency and integrity that are essential for holding credible elections.”
The Carter Center of the United States, the only authorized international observer of these elections, stated in a statement on July 30 that the electoral process “did not conform” to the international parameters and standards of electoral integrity, and therefore “cannot be considered democratic.”
There have also been complaints against the Venezuelan authorities in relation to the repression of opposition protests in the streets to denounce what they describe as electoral “fraud,” in which more than twenty people died and more than a thousand were arrested, according to official figures.
The Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice is carrying out a process of expert verification of the documentation presented by the CNE on the electoral process and results, but has not yet concluded its task.
Amid growing support inside and outside Venezuela for transparency calls, countries including Brazil and Colombia have suggested solutions such as rerunning elections or forming a coalition government.
Caracas / EFE
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2024-08-20 09:05:42