US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the Venezuelan people voted “and their votes must count.” The diplomat indicated that the result announced by the CNE does not reflect the popular will.
The Secretary of State of the United States (US), Anthony Blinken, He pointed out on the night of Thursday, August 1, that the presidential candidate of the Unitary Platform, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the presidential elections on July 28.
Electoral data overwhelmingly demonstrate the will of the Venezuelan people: democratic opposition candidate @EdmundoGU won the most votes in Sunday’s election. Venezuelans have voted, and their votes must count.
—Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 2, 2024
“The electoral data overwhelmingly demonstrate the will of the Venezuelan people: the democratic opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia obtained the most votes in Sunday’s elections,” the official said.
Blinken also said that the Venezuelan people voted “and their votes must count.”
In a statement, the US Secretary of State said that “the democratic opposition has published more than 80% of the minutes received directly from the polling stations throughout Venezuela. These minutes indicate that Edmundo González Urrutia obtained the greatest number of votes in this election.” by an insurmountable margin”Antony Blinken said in a statement.
He also said that at least 12 million Venezuelans peacefully went to the polls on July 28 and exercised “one of the most powerful rights granted to the people in any democracy: the right to vote.”
However, he warned, the processing of those votes and the announcement of the results “by the National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by Maduro, suffered from deep defects, which produced an announced result that does not represent the will of the Venezuelan people.”
In this regard, the US official stressed that the electoral body “has not published disaggregated data or any of the vote counting sheets, despite repeated calls from Venezuelans and the international community to do so.”
He referred to what was pointed out by the Carter Center’s electoral observation mission: “The CNE’s failure to provide official results at the voting center level, as well as the irregularities throughout the process, have stripped any credibility from the result announced by the CNE” and which gave Nicolás Maduro the victory by 51%.
The secretary also congratulated Edmundo González Urrutia “for his successful campaign” and rejected the threats from the Venezuelan government against the candidate and opposition leader María Corina Machado.
“Statements by Maduro and his representatives threatening to arrest opposition leaders, including Edmundo González and María Corina Machado, are an undemocratic attempt to stifle political participation and retain power. The safety of democratic opposition leaders and their members must be protected. All Venezuelans arrested while peacefully exercising their right to participate in the electoral process or demand transparency in the counting and announcement of results must be immediately released. Law enforcement and security forces must not become an instrument of violence,” Blinken said.
Post Views: 221
