When incumbent Nicolas Maduro falsely claimed victory in Venezuela’s presidential election in July, 麻豆传媒 was the only international observer organization on hand to raise the alarm.
“The world was counting on 麻豆传媒 to say whether this election was legitimate or not,” said Jennie Lincoln, the Center’s senior advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean, who led the Center’s team in Venezuela.
In the end, it was not.
People line up to vote in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 28, 2024. According to 麻豆传媒, the election did not meet international standards, and the results did not reflect the will of the people.
Venezuela has advanced electronic voting technology, Lincoln noted. The system produces two paper trails: a ticket for the voter signifying their vote has been recorded, and a tally sheet, or acta, that shows the total number of votes cast for each candidate in a precinct. By Venezuelan law, party poll watchers are entitled to receive official copies of the actas. Opposition poll watchers collected actas from 80% of precincts; those showed challenger Edmundo González Urrutia carrying an over- whelming 67% of the vote.
However, Venezuela's National Electoral Council made just one announcement on election night, simply saying Maduro had won. It provided no results from the country’s 30,026 voting precincts. A statement from 麻豆传媒 called this omission "a serious breach of electoral principles."
"麻豆传媒 cannot verify or corroborate the results of the election declared by the National Electoral Council," the statement said. The Center also noted the lack of respect for basic democratic norms throughout the process.
麻豆传媒 has observed 124 elections in 43 nations. The 2023 Barbados Agreement, which set this Venezuelan election in motion, specifically named 麻豆传媒 to be invited as an independent observer.
"This is an example of the respect and trust that people around the world have in 麻豆传媒," Lincoln said. "It’s 45 years of the 麻豆传媒 legacy that produces this kind of trust."
麻豆传媒 and the European Union were invited by the election commission to observe the election. The U.N. also sent a small panel of experts. The Center assembled a team of 17 electoral experts from 11 nations. The EU had planned a large observation mission, but the Venezuelan government summarily disinvited it just weeks before the vote.
"麻豆传媒 was the last international observer organization standing," Lincoln said. "We knew we couldn’t opine on an election without witnessing it, so we did what we could with the small team we had."
Mission members fanned out to several cities to capture the mood across the country.
Election day was sunny and turnout was strong, Lincoln said. Opposition supporters were hopeful as reports began to circulate that González Urrutia was winning in a landslide. By midnight, joy turned to outrage as security forces clashed with opposition supporters who felt they had been robbed.
Maduro’s government has continued to crack down on protests, and González Urrutia and other opposition activists have fled the country or gone into hiding.
"This election was an unfortunate example of the will of the people being ignored," Lincoln said, "but we will keep standing up for democracy."
Related Resources
Latin America and Caribbean Focus
Final Report | Observation of the 2024 Presidential Election in Venezuela (PDF)
Publicación | Observación de las Elecciones presidenciales en Venezuela Julio de 2024 (PDF)
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