What observers actually saw on 28J

Published at: 21/02/2025 04:39 PM

One of the mechanisms used by the Venezuelan electoral system and that is used in all nations when they hold electoral processes, is the figure of overseer or observer of them. Each country has the power to send a representative or not.

Both the legal and ethical bases and the basic methods of international observation are defined in the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, developed in a process that involved several organizations and initiated by the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division , the National Institute of Democracy (NDI) and the Carter Center. This document, issued by the United Nations (UN) in 2005, has been formally endorsed by more than 45 of the main international observer organizations and recognized with the thanks of the UN General Assembly for contributing to the harmonization of the practice of observation international.

Therefore, a transparent and verifiable electoral process must be open not only to the scrutiny of political participants in it; according to this statement, Electoral Observation is defined as “the systematic, complete and accurate collection of information about laws, processes and institutions related to the holding of elections and other factors pertaining to the general electoral environment, the impartial and professional analysis of such information, and drawing conclusions about the nature of electoral processes based on the most demanding criteria in terms of accuracy of information and impartiality of analysis”.

In the same way, the Electoral Observation Network of the Education Assembly (ROAE) points out that “the presence of international observers is a fairly widespread practice in the world and generates interest among the rulers because this guarantees them acceptance by the international community of the electoral processes that take place in their countries”,

In Venezuela, observers can travel and have free access to voting centers. They can also ask questions to the personnel responsible for the electoral process, that is, to the members of the board, coordinators of centers and officials of Plan República. In general, the observation is not conditional; they can act freely, always within the framework of the Law and look at what is necessary to be able to make a judgment on equal conditions, respect for the right to vote, the credibility of the electoral results, and other aspects of the election, says the electoral observation organization.

In this way, after a public statement recognizing the Venezuelan electoral system, the observer delegations signed a memorandum of understanding with the conditions under which they were going to carry out their work in the country during the electoral process, “the observer is not who comes to dictate if the election is right or wrong, but to say that it is what is seen in each election so that they can improve and it has worked and works in all countries,” he said Nicanor Moscoso, president of the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America (CEELA), which was signed by the president of the Parliamentary and Electoral Observatory, Carlos López, while celebrating that in Venezuela several sectors of the opposition has decided to run in this race and that the National Electoral Council (CNE) is solid, as reported by the portal Efecto Cocuyo.

To give you an example, here are some impressions from international observers and Heads of State regarding the elections held last Sunday, July 28:

Bartolomé Sancho Morey, Spanish observer. Journalist

“The data provided by the CNE are totally reliable, because in addition, I invite anyone who does not know the Venezuelan electoral system, to come and examine it thoroughly, to look for the fault. It's impossible to do fraud. I'm not saying that there isn't a system as exact as the one in Venezuela, but I've only seen it here.”

“What is true is that in Spain you can buy a vote and you would never know where it came from, but in Venezuela, with that system, it's impossible. The opposition is unaware of the results as always, because they are backed by the US, let's not be naive, the media machinery is impressive. Mrs. Machado exists because the United States exists, the extreme right of this country, without gringo support, big globalized capital, the IMF, the World Bank and Yankee imperialism, they would not dare to open their mouths. The same behavior that Mrs. Machado has, in Spain with infinitely fewer reasons, there are people imprisoned, not disabled, they are imprisoned”.

Juan Carlos Monedero, Spanish politician

In the presentation he made on a program called However on air, he explained that “the election in Venezuela is impossible to alter, except by hacking, and that doubt that they want to sow through international media is the only real support that Edmundo González is having, we already experienced it in Mexico : the media presented Gálvez as the winner who was going to end the López Obrador government, we saw the polls and the international media openly in favor of Gálvez and then at the polls, quite the opposite happened”.

The political scientist added that “they use the discourse of fear to delegitimize the electoral result: once Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed , Trump, Bolsonaro, Abascal, Noboa , Boric and Milei came out to ignore, almost in chorus, the result of the elections; this is nothing other than ignorance of the will of the Venezuelan people. Considering how dangerous María Machado has proved to be, with her ultra neoliberal, revanchist plan and eager for revenge against those who took power from her ancestors”.

Roberto Avila Toledo. Chilean historian and specialist in public affairs

I was in Venezuela the week before the elections and participated as an observer of the presidential elections and I can say that “everything flowed normally in the electoral centers I visited and I can say that the Venezuelan electoral system is not difficult, it is impossible to violate.”

He added that “some candidates appear more than others according to each party that supports them, so you can know how many votes each party brings. I was at the time when the governor of the state Miranda, after leaving the vote, was booed by a group of voters who were interested in another candidate . The army was there, and it did nothing to silence the screams, something that would not happen in a dictatorship; in which it would have quickly intervened on behalf of the governor. The representative of the candidate González, Mrs. Machado, is frightening with her speech, referring to her peers as marginals, suburbs, and other adjectives. This is shameful.”

So, it is striking that it is not until now that the Carter Center issues its report regarding the Venezuelan presidential electoral process, which denotes a bias that is almost a copy of the statements made by Mrs. Machado and former candidate González, where they claim that there was electoral fraud, without presenting any proof of what was stated. It also strikes us that now, the director of this center is Mrs. Paige Alexander, who has been a representative of USAID for more than 10 years and maintains close ties with the Venezuelan right; therefore, she questions the transparency and veracity of that report.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team