President of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Vicente Díaz, has claimed that there is no possibility that Sunday’s elections will have fraudulent results due to the fact that all of the voting machines, local councils and vote-counting committees are shielded, anonymous and “bulletproof”.
Díaz stated “I’m sure that both candidates would be happy to accept fair defeat. Whoever loses will accept the results because their technical team will have been there, testing the software and monitoring witnesses involved in the process.”
According to the head of the electoral accompaniment mission of the Union of South American Countries (UNASUR), Carlos Álvarez, there is “not even a small chance of the results being fraudulent”, saying that “Venezuela currently possesses one of the strongest and most technologically advanced electoral systems in the region of Latin America, which ensures transparency, control and vigilance at the polls.”
Alvárez reaffirmed this, explaining that in highly polarised societies such as Venezuela there are frequent accusations of fraud in voting, usually spurred on by the losing political party. This, he says, adds to the notion that developed-country organisations such as those from the US or Europe should observe elections to ensure their accuracy.
International figures have given their support to this issue: Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa affirmed his belief in seeing Sunday’s elections achieve a democratic outcome but warned against a “campaign to create doubts about the electoral result”. Barack Obama also expressed his hopes for “free and just” elections in Venezuela.
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