A cursory look at Venezuelan election

Pars Today- Venezuela has been witness to the recent developments while in Western countries, like the US and Canada, there are no similar rules for announcement of election results and, in some cases, even the results are announced with much delay.

Venezuela has once again undergone a coup attempt like that of 2002, but this time the plot was accompanied with new dimensions of organized crimes and cyber-attacks. In the recent election, millions of Venezuelan voters cast their votes with the presence of more than 635 international supervisors, including experts of the UN and the African Union. However, according to Pars Today, this election faced with many challenges. Perhaps, the biggest challenge was the conduct that the US always shows in such events, that is, to provoke the opposition, to call on them to overthrow and provide money to spread riots.

Election results

On July 28, 2024, Nicholas Maduro was elected again as president with %51.2 of the votes (5,150,092 votes). His rightist rival, Edmundo González was defeated with %44.2 of the votes (4,445,978 votes). Other candidates won only %4.6 of the votes. The results were announced by the constitutional election center (CNE) after reviewing of %80 of the votes.

Cyber-attacks

Although the early results have been announced, the remaining %20 of the votes have not been released yet due to the broad cyber-attack on the electronic system. This intricate cyber-attack, which occurred more than one hundred times, was traced in north Macedonia. Apart from exposure of some of the officials involved in the sabotage, President Maduro accused Elon Musk as one of the main meddlers in these attacks.

International experience

The point to note here is that in Western countries, like the US and Canada, there are no similar rules for announcement of election results and, in some cases, even the results are announced with much delay. For instance, in the 2000 election in the US, the final results were announced after 37 days and in 2021, too, the final results were announced with a 4-day delay.

Coup and violence

After the announcement of early results, broad violence took place in Venezuela. This violence was kindled by criminal groups and terrorists who had been organized by Maria Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition. These groups, who had been trained with collaboration of the organized Colombian criminals, embarked on vandalism and burning of public and private properties. As a result, 77 military and police forces were injured and an officer was also killed.

Government's response

The Venezuelan government arrested over 1,062 of the rioters and perpetrators of the recent violence and tried to restore order in the country. The detainees, who had been under drug effect, very soon confessed their crimes and were prosecuted. These efforts of the government proved that Venezuela has gained great success in countering terrorism and organized crimes.

Key phrases: Venezuelan election, US intervention, Who is Maduro? Venezuela and US

RM/ME