The OAS said that the fact that the opposition has presented the minutes and the government has not done so “would be laughable and pathetic if it were not tragic.”
The Organization of American States (OAS) denounced on Tuesday that Sunday’s presidential elections in Venezuela, in which President Nicolas Maduro was declared victor, suffered “the most aberrant manipulation,” in a statement from the office of his secretary general Luis Almagro.
“Throughout this electoral process, the Venezuelan regime was seen to have the application of its repressive scheme complemented by actions aimed at completely distorting the electoral outcome, making that result available to the most aberrant manipulation,” the text says.
After hours of uncertainty on Sunday, the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE), an official line, ended up giving Maduro the victory with 51.2% of the vote compared to 44.2% of the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González.
But both the opposition, led by María Corina Machado, and much of the international community, including the United States, the European Union, Brazil and Colombia, questioned the results of Maduro’s third consecutive six-year term.
Machado said Monday that he had in his possession copies of 73% of the counting records and projected a victory by Gonzalez with 6.27 million votes against Maduro’s 2.75.
Almagro’s office said that the fact that the opposition has submitted the minutes and the government has not done so “would be laughable and pathetic if it were not tragic.”
“In this context it is imperative to know about Maduro’s acceptance of the minutes in the hands of the opposition,” as well as accepting “his electoral defeat,” the statement said.
“If not, it would be necessary to hold new elections, but in this case with the electoral observation missions of the European Union and the OAS present and a new CNE to reduce the institutional irregularity margin that this process plagued,” he said.
The OAS Permanent Council convened an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to “address the results of the electoral process” in Venezuela.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo