Carter Center unable to verify Venezuela election results, blasts officials for lack of transparency

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Carter Center said it was unable to verify the results of Venezuela’s presidential election, blaming authorities for a “complete lack of transparency” in declaring Nicolas Maduro the winner without providing any individual polling tallies.

The statement Tuesday night by the Atlanta-based group is perhaps the harshest rebuke yet of Venezuela’s chaotic election process because it comes from one of just a handful of outside groups invited by the Maduro government to observe the vote.

“The electoral authority’s failure to announce disaggregated results by polling station constitutes a serious breach of electoral principles,” the Carter Center said. The group, which had a technical mission of 17 experts spread out in four cities across Venezuela, added that the election did not meet international standards and “cannot be considered democratic.”

The Carter Center’s harsh criticism capped a second long day of protests against the results by opponents of Maduro who said their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, trounced the incumbent by a more than two-to-one margin.

Maduro’s government hasn’t taken lightly to the criticism and ratcheted up their attacks on their opponents Tuesday, with some allies suggesting the opposition’s most influential leader and a presidential candidate be arrested.

A day after Maduro was declared the winner by a National Electoral Council that is loyal to him and the ruling party, the attacks, which were aired on national television, followed the opposition’s surprise release of detailed voting data that it said shows that Edmundo González won by a landslide.

The electoral council has not released any results from the polling center level, which come from tally sheets that the more than 30,000 electronic voting machines print after polls close. It is not obligated to do so, but in previous elections it has posted the figures online within hours.

United States President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke by phone and agreed that Venezuela must release the data, saying the election’s outcome “represents a critical moment for democracy in the hemisphere,” according to a White House summary of the call.

Biden and Lula “agreed on the need for immediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data at the polling station level by the Venezuelan electoral authorities,” it said.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.

As both sides defended their claim to victory, thousands of their supporters took to the streets of the capital, Caracas.

A huge crowd of opposition supporters gathered outside the United Nations’ offices. Opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, standing atop a truck, called on the National Electoral Council to release the tally sheets, saying, “Why don’t they publish them?”

Machado said the main opposition coalition has obtained more than 84% of the tally sheets, which show González garnered more than twice as many votes as Maduro.

“The only thing we are willing to negotiate is the peaceful transition,” Machado said, as the crowd chanted: “We have no fear!”

Opposition supporters elsewhere in the city were met with tear gas Tuesday.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab told reporters that more than 700 protesters were arrested in nationwide demonstrations Monday. He added that one officer was killed.

Machado and González urged their supporters to remain calm and avoid violence.

“And remember this figure, when the tally sheets are counted, yours truly will have more than 8 million votes,” González said, flanked by his wife and Machado, whom Maduro’s government barred from running for political office for 15 years. “We are going to begin the reconstruction of Venezuela.”

Their celebration came hours after the Organization of American States lambasted the government for not releasing the data and suggested a new election that would be monitored by international observers.

“The worst form of repression, the most vile, is to prevent the people from finding solutions through elections,” the OAS said in a statement. “The obligation of each institution in Venezuela should be to ensure freedom, justice, and transparency in the electoral process.”

Maduro’s closest ruling party allies came to his defense. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez — his chief negotiator in dialogues with the U.S. and the opposition — insisted Maduro was the indisputable winner and called the opposition violent fascists.

Praising the arrest of the protesters, he said Machado should be jailed and so should González, “because he is the leader of the fascist conspiracy that is trying to impose itself in Venezuela.”

Diosdado Cabello, a lawmaker and ruling party leader, later said: “We are going to screw them because these people do not deserve to shed one more drop of blood for fascism.”

United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk expressed alarm over the post-election climate.

“Hundreds of people have been arrested, including children. This troubles me deeply,” he said in a statement. “I am alarmed by reports of disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials along with violence by armed individuals supporting the Government.”

Long lines of residents started to build Tuesday outside supermarkets and other stores in Caracas in apparent anticipation of a prolonged period of demonstrations that could lead to food shortages.

In the port city of La Guaira, people toppled a statue of Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, dragged it to the street and set it on fire during Monday’s protests. Maduro unveiled the statue in 2017, and by Tuesday all that remained was its base, littered with twisted rebar and broken cement.

The election was among the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting hopes that Venezuela could avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule. The winner would take control of an economy recovering from collapse and a population desperate for change.

During a televised meeting of the National Defense Council on Tuesday, Maduro blamed retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia for “the criminal violence, the criminals, the wounded, the dead, the destruction.”

“You will be directly responsible, Mr. González Urrutia, and you, Mrs. Machado, and justice has to come, in Venezuela there has to be justice because these things cannot happen again.”

Later, speaking from the balcony of the presidential palace, Maduro called González a coward and challenged him to face him.

“Come after me!” he yelled. “Show me your face. … Where are you hiding, mister coward?”

Machado stunned Venezuelans on Monday when she announced that the opposition had acquired the tally sheets, which showed that González received roughly 6.2 million votes compared with 2.7 million for Maduro. Hours earlier, the electoral council reported a count of about 5.1 million for Maduro, against more than 4.4 million for González.

Machado said the opposition created a searchable website with images of each tally sheet.

The number of eligible voters was estimated to be around 17 million. Another 4 million Venezuelans are registered but live abroad, and many did not meet the requirements to register to cast ballots overseas.

As Machado and González stood atop the truck, supporters began chanting “President! President!”

“This gathering smells like triumph,” González told them.

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Associated Press writer Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report. Salomon reported from Miami.

Joshua Goodman, Gisela Salomon And Regina Garcia Cano, The Associated Press