Colombia’s Petro calls for ‘transparent’ vote count amid unrest in Venezuela | Nicolás Maduro News

Colombia’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro called for a “transparent vote count” in Venezuela, which has been rocked by days of mass protests after President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of a disputed election.

Petro, who has worked to improve Colombia-Venezuela ties since taking office in 2022, said Wednesday that the Venezuelan government should “allow the elections to end peacefully, allowing for a transparent vote count… and professional international oversight.” ”.

Such a process would appease the protesters “and end the violence that leads to death”, wrote the Colombian president in a post on social media.

He also said that Maduro, who came to power in 2013 after the death of his mentor Hugo Chávez, had a “great responsibility” amid the turmoil: “to honor the spirit of Chávez and allow the Venezuelan people to return to tranquility while the elections end peacefully.” and the transparent result, whatever it may be, is accepted.”

Petro’s comments come as Maduro rejects international criticism and pressure to release the full results of Sunday’s presidential elections, which saw the Venezuelan president face opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) formally declared Maduro on Monday as the winner of the vote. The CNE said Maduro secured 51 percent support to win another six-year term, compared to Gonzalez’s 44 percent.

But the Venezuelan opposition classified the official results as fraudulent, saying it had proof that Gonzalez defeated Maduro.

“We Venezuelans want peace and respect for the popular will,” Gonzalez said on Tuesday, as thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of the capital Caracas and other parts of the country to protest the results.

The protesters, many of whom chanted anti-Maduro slogans, were met with tear gas and rubber bullets fired by police.

At least 11 people have been killed in incidents related to the election count or protests, rights group Foro Penal said on Tuesday, and international observers have raised serious concerns about the worsening crackdown on demonstrations.

Maduro adopted a defiant tone, saying this week, without any evidence, that Venezuela was the target of an attempted “coup d’état” of a “fascist and counter-revolutionary” nature.

His government called the protesters violent agitators and Maduro directly blamed Gonzalez “for everything that is happening in Venezuela,” including “criminal violence… the injured, the dead, the destruction.”

Opposition leaders say they have access to about 90 percent of the vote counts – which by law must be given to witnesses when counting the votes – and printouts of those counts show that Gonzalez won more than twice as many votes as Maduro.

But Oswaldo Ramirez of Caracas-based firm ORC Consultores said the opposition faces “significant” challenges. “The opposition must show that it has the numbers and send them to other countries as proof,” he told the Reuters news agency.

Carmen Beatriz Fernandez, CEO of the company Datastrategia, said that “there is still a small chance” that Maduro’s government could consent to negotiations to establish a transition of power.

However, given that the government has not released the numbers, “it appears to be taking the worst path for itself and the country,” she said.

On Wednesday, foreign ministers from G7 countries urged Venezuelan authorities to publish “detailed election results with full transparency.”

“And we ask election representatives to immediately share all information with the opposition and independent observers,” they said in a statement.

The U.S.-based Carter Center, which sent election observers to Venezuela for the vote, said Tuesday night that the election “it did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic.”

“The Carter Center cannot verify or corroborate the electoral results declared by the National Electoral Council (CNE), and the fact that the electoral authority does not announce the results disaggregated by polling station constitutes a serious violation of electoral principles”, he stated in an affirmation.

The group listed a series of problems with the electoral process, including short voter registration deadlines, unequal campaign conditions, restrictions on the opposition and what it said was a “clear bias” on the part of the CNE in favor of Maduro.

“In the limited number of voting centers they visited, Carter Center observer teams noted the desire of the Venezuelan people to participate in a democratic electoral process, as demonstrated through their active participation as election board members, party witnesses, and observers citizens,” he stated. .

“However, their efforts were hampered by the CNE’s total lack of transparency in announcing the results.”