As announced last week, Venezuela’s electoral council (CNE) is going to self-audit.
That will not change the results of the “election” one iota.
Just to clear any doubts, let’s hear it from CNE chief Tibisay Lucena, who told Venezuelans (my translation. If you use it, please credit me and link to this post) to,
don’t harbor false expectations since the approved audit is to show that the technological platform works perfectly well and that the results are true to the voters’ will.
Don’t believe me? Here it is in Spanish,
“no se hagan falsas expectativas ya que la auditoría aprobada es para demostrar que la plataforma tecnológica funciona perfectamente y que los resultados son fiel reflejo de la voluntad de los votantes”.
If Maduro completes his 6-year term, Venezuela would have had 20 years of Chavismo.
Venezuela Vote Faces Review, namely, the CNE (the electoral council) will wait until after Maduro’s inaugurated, and
Details of the audit were unclear. Ms. Lucena said the revision would be electronic and wasn’t the same as a recount, which is what the opposition had demanded following the election. “This should not be interpreted as any sort of ‘scrutiny,’” she said in televised comments.
Which, from the looks of it, means that they’ll just go over some data from the electronic voting machines while ignoring the paper ballots, fingerprint data, and the voting location records.
I do not want to offer any opinion because it is a complex matter to evaluate how good the news really is. Capriles team seems happy with it so for the time being let’s roll. However I will note that the CNE is talking of 30 days of audit and who knows how many more for a final verdict. In short the regime is accepting an audit as long as it gives it time to come up with a better strategy to confront the opposition and smash it down before the result is out. At least that is my worry at this time as a one week audit should already generate enough info to see if it is worth going on.
Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected calls for a recount of the country’s disputed presidential vote, even as the opposition submitted reports of thousands of alleged irregularities and the U.S. government reiterated its call for a new tally of ballots.
And as the military has been pressuring Maduro to allow a recount, the Impostor-President had none other than the President of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, Luisa Estela Morales, issue her already formed opinion, once again without the legal arguments being presented at the time in her Court.
Over in Rome, Venezuela’s ambassador to Italy, Julián Isaías Rodríguez Díaz, posed for the cameras holding the Cuban flag,
“We think there ought to be a recount,” Secretary of State John Kerry told U.S. lawmakers. “Obviously, if there are huge irregularities, we are going to have serious questions about the viability of that government … I’m not sure that’s over yet.”
Meanwhile, Cabello’s cautioning the US to “hold its tongue,” and stay out of Venezuela’s business.
Charming guy, that Cabello.
On his part, Maduro’s threatening to arrest Capriles (link in Spanish) for inciting rebellion. Let’s not forget that Venezuela has a law against anyone impeding the revolution.
Additionally, a source told El Herald that Maduro wants to charge Capriles for the murder of the seven demonstrators who died yesterday.
After disputed presidential elections in Venezuelan, Doral can expect a new wave of immigrants from the South American country who could increase the population by 40 percent in the next two years, Mayor Luigi Boria said Monday.
The number of Venezuelans could jump from nearly 50,000 residents to about 70,000 by 2015, Boria said.
Tension in Venezuela rose sharply Monday after the government reneged on its promise to carry out a full recount of the bitterly contested presidential vote and declared acting President Nicolás Maduro as president-elect.
The opposition, pointing to irregularities in the election, said it wouldn’t recognize the result and began to demonstrating across the country, as the U.S. urged a vote recount.
…
Some 100,000 expatriate ballots haven’t yet been counted as part of the tally. In the past they have overwhelmingly backed the opposition.
Sunday night, after Electoral Council President Tibisay Lucena announced Maduro’s victory as “irreversible”, Council member Vicente Díaz remained on the podium and requested a full recount and audit of the results due to “a number of irregularities” (video in Spanish),
In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, at least according to the chavista-controlled board of election, won last night. Henrique Capriles Radonski demanded a recount, asserting that electoral fraud had taken place. Here’s his speech last night (in Spanish),
Evidence has emerged of a link between the FARC and Islamist terrorist groups in the North African Maghreb after two Colombian nationals were arrested in Algeria last month by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Spanish intelligence services.
Luis Alberto Lacalle, abogado y presidente de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay de 1990 a 1995 envia un afectuoso saludo a la Fundacion HACER de Washington DC desde el 25 Aniversario de la Fundacion Libertad de Rosario
The electoral board announcement was pushed back over and over, with the TV anchors talking on and on. Venevision even showed their entire crew.
By 11:10PM (10:40 Caracas time), Globovision said that no announcement could be made until the number of uncounted votes was smaller than the difference between the candidates, which, at that late hour pointed to a close election.
Finally, almost at midnight, after repeated appeals for calm, the announcement, as I predicted.
The shameful silence of Latin America’s democracies on Venezuela’s election. A Wash Post devastating editorial washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-r…
Former Ecuadorian president Osvaldo Hurtado writes in his book, Dictaduras Del Siglo XXI El Caso Ecuatoriano (21st Century Dictatorships: The Case of Ecuador), on how the self-named “leaders of the 21st century socialist revolutions” take over and destroy the democratic institutions in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
These 21st century dictatorships hold elections after instituting mechanisms, procedures and restrictions, and establishing advantages, which are all anti-democratic by eliminating the level ground for the election to take place.
As I have mentioned many times over the last 9 nine years, Hugo Chavez’s rule focused on concentrating all power on himself. After his death, Maduro became acting president, against the provisions of the Venezuelan Constitution, in order for him to run as incumbent. That way he has full control of the entire electoral process, the media, and all Venezuelan institutions.
Keep that in mind tonight when you see the election results.
