International observers in Venezuelan election report their findings from yesterday

[Catherina]

6. UNASUR unequivocally stands by the official results

Sunday, 14 April 2013 06:15
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4:48 PM EDT: As opposed to the response from the White House and from the Organization of American States (OAS), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) has unequivocally stood by the official results from last night. UNASUR, which sent an election monitoring delegation to Venezuela, said in part:

Regarding the official electoral results released yesterday, UNASUR’s Electoral Accompaniment Mission declares—as it has since its installation in the country— that the results announced should be respected because they were emitted by the National Electoral Council, the only competent authority in these matters according to the constitutional and legal provisions of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

You can read the whole statement here (in Spanish).


4:47 PM EDT: In a Q&A on the Washington Office on Latin America’s (WOLA) Venezuela Politics and Human Rights blog, Professor David Smilde offers this analysis of a potential audit:

It is unlikely that an audit of paper ballots would show a different result from the electronic tally. The paper ballots are actually produced by the machine itself when a citizen votes. This system was developed at a time in which there was a lot of distrust in the idea of electronically tabulating and transmitting the votes. The paper ballot was a backup. But the electronic machines have been audited many times by international, national and opposition technicians. More likely to affect the vote totals will be inclusion of the international vote (which will be overwhelming for Capriles) and addressing the 3,000 irregularities the opposition says it has documented. Even then, however, the vote’s outcome is unlikely to be reversed.

With regards to the U.S. role in the post-election environment, Smilde writes that “the U.S. would do well to stay on the sidelines.”


4:46 PM EDT: White House spokesperson Jay Carney told a news briefing that an audit of all votes cast is “necessary.” Reuters reported Carney’s statement regarding the election as follows:

"Given the tightness of the result - around 1 percent of the votes cast separate the candidates - the opposition candidate and at least one member of the electoral council have called for a 100 percent audit of the results," White House spokesman Jay Carney told a news briefing.

"This appears an important, prudent and necessary step to ensure that all Venezuelans have confidence in these results," Carney said. "In our view rushing to a decision in these circumstances would be inconsistent with the expectations of Venezuelans for a clear and democratic outcome."

Mark Weisbrot responded to the news with a blog post on CEPR’s Americas Blog, in which he called the White House move "ominous." Weisbrot writes:

If the White House merely wanted to support a 100 percent audit, it could do so privately, even to both sides (the NYT reported today that President Maduro reached out to the Obama administration through Bill Richardson, looking to improve relations). The White House statement today shows once again that it is definitely not interested in improving relations.

Click here to read the entire post at the Americas Blog.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/venezuelas-presidential-elections-2013-live-blog