Anti-Chavismo Henrique Capriles urged Venezuela’s National Electoral Council to “tell the truth” when announcing the results of Sunday’s presidential election, saying “nothing is above the truth and popular sovereignty.”
“After seeing the results and the results that are coming from all over the country, we Venezuelans hope that the CNE’s announcement will be in line with what the people have decided. He urged X Capriles, who supports the candidacy of Edmundo González Urrutia, to tell the truth,” he said. He is the bearer of the largest opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitarian Platform (PUD).
Likewise, Capriles stated that “everyone” has “information from previous operations and in some centers what happened today is considered historical.”
His call joins hundreds of figures from around the world calling for a transparent and democratic process that does not distort citizens’ efforts to express themselves freely at the ballot box.
Polls were supposed to close at 6 p.m., as planned, but in some of Venezuela’s more than 15,000 authorized voting centers, more than an hour after the deadline, some remained open and the authorities remained silent. The opposition asked the National Electoral Council to begin counting the votes.
Venezuela’s electoral regulations state that polling stations must remain open as long as there are voters waiting to cast their ballots, an unlikely scenario in many parts of Caracas that were without lines in the afternoon after a large turnout in the morning.
According to the latest report issued by the campaign leadership of the opposition majority candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, when there were two hours left before the tabulations closed, a turnout of 54.8% was recorded, in a population of about 21.4 million voters.
The National Elections Center does not provide turnout data and prohibits the publication of result projections before the institution issues its first official bulletin, which is expected on Sunday evening.
Once the deadline for closing the elections arrived, opposition candidate Enrique Marquez stated that it was time to comply with the rules of the Organic Law on Electoral Processes and close the tables that had no voters in line.
“At this stage, we are risking the transparency of the electoral process and the peace of the country. Our witnesses must receive the tally lists and carry out audits on the tables drawn. It is time to call for peace in a country that has chosen electoral means,” the former deputy who was vice president of the National Electoral Council expressed on social media.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has asked election witnesses to verify the voting record in the presidential election, as determined by the National Electoral Council, as long as there are no people waiting to cast their votes.
“If there are no people in line, the tables must be closed. It is time to see how your votes are counted, piece by piece. To all witnesses: you have the right to record the minutes. The record is the evidence, make sure you have it and follow the protocol of the orders,” Machado said on social media platform X.
While former Venezuelan ruler Andrés Velázquez denounced the expulsion of some witnesses from the Union for Democratic Unity party from polling stations during the final count, at the end of the presidential elections, without any reason for this and without presenting any argument.
For his part, the advisor to the Democratic Unity Party, Perkins Rocha, stated that “Article 140 of the Organic Law on Electoral Processes” stipulates that “the audit process is public and that members of the electoral council will be allowed to be present at the headquarters of voters and election witnesses, without any restrictions other than those derived from the physical capacity of the buildings and the security of the electoral law.”
Earlier, González Urrutia’s campaign leadership reported that some of her election witnesses were denied access to voting centers, although it was a smaller percentage, as 91% of her witnesses are officially accredited and working, said former representative Delsa Solorzano, on their behalf from the PUD.
Meanwhile, Maduro’s campaign chief, Jorge Rodriguez, said that although they “cannot give results,” they can “show faces” with smiles.
“We cannot provide results. We will wait impatiently for the bulletin of the National Electoral Council, but immediately after that bulletin, we will wait for you,” Rodriguez told reporters.
In this election, current President Nicolás Maduro is seeking a third consecutive six-year term in power, after twenty-five years of Chavismo in power.
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