Brazilian observer skeptical about Venezuela election

Senator Chico Rodrigues, the only Brazilian lawmaker to visit Venezuela as an electoral observer during last Sunday’s presidential election, said it is “unlikely” that the Nicolás Maduro regime will publish the results from individual ballot boxes, as Brazil’s federal government requested.

Mr. Rodrigues told the Senate’s radio station that he found it “very strange” that Mr. Maduro had proclaimed himself the winner before the electoral results were officially published. “Why all the rush?” he said. The move, he added, “created a cloud of doubt,” leading the opposition to “complain about the lack of transparency in the election, rightfully so.”

In a press conference yesterday, Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado announced that they had secured access to records from 73 percent of ballot boxes, and would publish them online to demonstrate that their candidate Edmundo González was the real winner. Electoral authorities have so far published none.

“There was no transparency … The elections are clearly under suspicion,” Mr. Rodrigues said.

Mr. Rodrigues plays a key role in bilateral relations as president of the Brazil-Venezuela parliamentary group and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He represents Roraima, Brazil’s northernmost state, which borders Venezuela and through which almost 600,000 Venezuelans entered Brazil over the last eight years.

He added that he had perceived an “expectation” among voters heading to the polling stations on Sunday that the government would interfere in the result.

“It is very difficult or almost improbable for the CNE, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, to retrieve these polling station results and present them so that a comparative analysis can be made of what went into each ballot box and what actually came out in these reports,” Mr. Rodrigues said.

The senator returned to Brazil on Monday night. He said Venezuela is experiencing a “tense moment” and that it is “impossible” for Brazil to accept nontransparent results in the election.

“I have information that there will be large demonstrations today [in Venezuela], which is a shame, and which will cause serious problems for the Venezuelan population”, he added.

Following Mr. Maduro’s re-election, the opposition has staged protests, resulting in at least four deaths and dozens of arrests by the police. Brazilian diplomacy has advised nationals in Venezuela to monitor updates from the Brazilian Embassy in Caracas and avoid crowded areas.

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