The Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference announced it was “uniting its voice” to demands from “inside and outside Venezuela” for the results of Sunday’s general election to be verified. Source: The Tablet.
Nicolás Maduro, the serving president, claimed a 51.20 per cent victory in the July 28 election over the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, who allegedly won 44.20 per cent of the votes.
The opposition leader, María Corina Machado, alleged print-outs of votes from election-machines at Venezuela’s polling stations show Mr González to be the rightful winner by a landslide.
“We have all the minutes transmitted by the electoral council,” said Ms Machado, who was banned from standing in the election. She had urged her supporters to vote for Mr González, a retired diplomat.
On Monday, Ms Machado claimed to have accessed 73 per cent of the electoral machine print-outs, revealing that Mr González had won 3.5 million more votes than Mr Maduro. She has promised to upload the print-outs onto a website.
In a message published on social media, the presidency of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference urged people to “remain strong in hope” and make “our just demands with the pacific attitudes of respect and tolerance which have reigned until now”.
They added that they wished to articulate “our closeness and willingness to pastorally accompany” Venezuelans “in these worrying times”.
On Monday night, at least one person died in clashes with the police in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, during large-scale demonstrations protesting the election result.
Mr Maduro’s victory was welcomed by the political leadership of Cuba, China and Russia.
Nine Latin American nations issued a joint statement expressing “profound concern” over the elections. The governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay demanded “a thorough review” of the results and for “transparent” counting of votes in the presence of electoral observers.
Venezuela responded by immediately expelling the diplomatic missions of Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay from Venezuela, accusing them of “interventionist acts”.
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Venezuelan bishops voice concerns over disputed election results (By Bess Twiston Davies, The Tablet)
