It's not surprising! Singing fraud is already an oppositional tradition

Published at: 29/07/2024 12:11 PM

As we are used to with the Venezuelan opposition, after saying throughout their campaign that they are winners, that the polls say they will be winners; seeing the result of the elections, the second part of the script begins: to denounce that there was fraud and they never present any proof of it.

During the 2006 presidential campaign, the opposition, having been defeated, began to use the “fraud” discourse at least 3 months before the elections, making headlines in international media, such as:

“Venezuela: The opposition warns of possible electoral fraud on December 3 and that Chávez will not recognize the result, Europa Press 22/11/2006. The Venezuelan opposition warned today of various ways in which the results of the presidential elections on December 3 could be falsified, from the possibility of fraud in the counting of the automated voting system, to the possible withdrawal of Hugo Chávez days before the elections or, even, a “ self-coup”. Nor did they rule out riots instigated by Venezuelan Army reservists against the opposition on election day.”

Also, the portal of the supposed NGO, Súmate, published the following on December 7, 2006: “Data received in Súmate match those of the CNE ELECTORAL PROCESS WAS MARKED BY IRREGULARITIES”. The counting and closing audit data received by Súmate's totalizers at the country's voting centers coincided with the official figures published by the CNE; however, this organization reported that the development of the electoral process was marked by government advantage and the partiality of the governing body.

Later, just a few years passed to celebrate the regional elections that took place in 2008, when the elections were taking place, the then president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, who recalled, as indicated by the Law, that “those voting centers that have voters in line must remain open (...) until the last person in the queue has voted,” said the president .

However, the leaders of the opposition parties Primero Justicia, Acción Democrática y Podemos; Julio Borges, Henry Ramos Allup and Ismael García , respectively, they assured minutes before Lucena's intervention that the CNE had received “a fraudulent” order from the Government to extend the vote.

“The Government knows that it is losing and that is why that order,” Borges said in statements to journalists outside the CNE headquarters in Caracas, together with the other two opposition leaders.” In the same statements, Ramos Allup added the following: “We are not going to allow fraud and advantage to try to ignore the fact that the majority, even the Chavista people themselves, are beating up this Government at the polls.”

The same narrative was used in 2017, publishing headlines in foreign media, such as the following: “The Venezuelan opposition will present the evidence it claims to demonstrate electoral fraud in the regional elections, BBC Mundo, October 19, in which Henrique Capriles declared that “the most corrupt electoral system in the world is the one we are facing, and he assured that the MUD will have to think about whether it will participate in the next municipal elections, for which there is no date yet.”

However, the opposition did not have the support it expected and that the polls expected due to the abstention of part of its voters, which would be partially explained, according to Capriles, by the CNE's maneuvers.

Also in 2018, after the presidential elections, the American portal CNN published the following: “Maduro's electoral triumph was a farce, say the opposition and the international community.”

Maduro's main rival for the presidency was Henri Falcón , who came second with 1.8 million votes, according to the Electoral Board, with 92.6% of the votes counted. Falcón said he would not recognize the results and cited hundreds of complaints of electoral violations. Election officials said they would address the claims.

“In such circumstances, we have serious and serious questions on our part, and in addition to the questioning we may have about the process, it undoubtedly lacks legitimacy and, in this sense, we do not recognize this electoral process, ” Falcón said.

This is why it is not surprising that during this electoral process, they use the strategy of reporting fraud, since it has been part of their behavior during these electoral processes, disrespecting the referee and even disqualifying the work of those who work there, since for the last 25 years, they have never presented any evidence of irregularities that they report permanently.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team