Article

Friday, September 27, 2024
search-icon

Maduro has not shown ‘necessary public evidence’ to declare victory in Venezuela elections: EU

publish time

25/08/2024

publish time

25/08/2024

XMM310
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro flashes victory hand signs at supporters during a pro-government rally, in Caracas, Venezuela on Aug 17. (AP)

MEXICO CITY, Aug 25, (AP): The European Union's top diplomat on Saturday said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has still "not provided the necessary public evidence” to prove he was the winner of July’s elections, days after the country’s Supreme Court backed the government’s disputed claims of victory.

The bloc joined a slate of other Latin American countries and the United States in rejecting the Venezuelan high court’s certification. Authorities repeated calls for Maduro to release the election's official tally sheets, considered the one verifiable vote count in Venezuela as they are almost impossible to replicate. "Only complete and independently verifiable results will be accepted and recognized," Josep Borrell, the high representative of the EU, said in a statement.

Borrell's comments came as the leaders of Brazil and Colombia also demanded the release of the tallies, saying on Saturday the "credibility of the electoral process can only be restored through the transparent publication of disaggregated and verifiable data.” The joint statement from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro didn’t go as far as to reject the court certification.

Many had been waiting to see how the two leftist leaders would respond to the court because both are close allies of Maduro and have been working to facilitate talks with both sides. Maduro claims that he won the presidential vote, but so far has refused to release the tallies. Meanwhile, the main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal the vote.

Opposition volunteers managed to collect copies of voting tallies from 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide that show former opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The Supreme Court and other government entities alleged those tallies were forged. The Venezuelan government rejected Borrell’s statements, calling them "interventionist.”