The Carter Center observer mission explains the facts
Jennie Lincoln: there is no evidence of an alleged hack; Maduro should be proud of the Venezuelan electronic voting system.
By Carlos F. Chamorro (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Jennie Lincoln, the senior advisor for the Carter Center for Latin America and head of the only independent election observation mission at Venezuela’s July 28th elections, has no doubts about the results. “We reviewed 24,533 tally sheets (collected by opposition witnesses) with 81.7% (of the total voting records), and we agree with the analysis of these records that show that Edmundo González won with nearly 70%, by a 2 to 1 margin,” Lincoln said in an interview on the program Esta Semana, to be broadcast on CONFIDENCIAL’s YouTube channel this Sunday, August 11 at 8:00 PM.
The political scientist and expert in election observation dismisses any claims of a hack of the National Electoral Council’s Internet system on July 28 (as claimed by President Maduro) or any external interference in the electronic voting system. “There is no proof, no evidence whatsoever,” says Lincoln, recalling that in the early hours of July 29, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, said that they had received 80% of the vote, although the system actually totaled 92%, and he promised to “post on the CNE website all the results, precinct by precinct, and deliver a digital copy of those results to the participating political parties. However, so far, (two weeks later) none of these actions have been fulfilled.”
Lincoln believes that President Nicolas Maduro, who was running for re-election, should be proud of “having a good system (of voting), and their good system means they have the detailed results,” both the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and President Maduro.
Two weeks after the Venezuelan election, the National Electoral Council continues to award victory to Nicolas Maduro without showing the detailed voting results, while the opposition, with 82% of the records, claims that Edmundo González won decisively. Does the Carter Center’s observation mission have a conclusion on the outcome of this election?
We have loudly stated that this election does not meet international standards, it is not a democratic election. But I want to explain how we reached this conclusion.
We received an invitation from the National Electoral Council (CNE) based on the Barbados Agreement, signed in October last year between the opposition and the government, with some rules for this presidential election. We negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the CNE to secure some guarantees they gave us: 1. Access to the electoral process, 2. Freedom of movement throughout the country, without restriction, 3. Freedom of expression, to speak whenever we wanted, talking about our observations, without a filter, without restrictions. So, we arrived with this memorandum in hand, although the invitation to the European Union had been revoked, meaning we were the only group of independent observers.
We were not a large group, 17 experts from 11 countries. An international mission with experts who have been involved in
