The Carter Center, which acted as an observer during Venezuela’s presidential election, stated that the process did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and therefore cannot be considered democratic.
“The Carter Center cannot verify or corroborate the authenticity of the presidential election results announced by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE)”, the center said in a released statement.
The organization noted that the body responsible for organizing the vote, which has declared the incumbent Nicolás Maduro the winner with more than two million votes yet to be counted, has not disclosed results broken down by polling station. This, the center argued, constitutes a serious violation of core electoral principles and noted that the process did not meet international integrity standards in any of its critical stages and violated numerous provisions of the country’s own laws.
According to the observer report, the election took place in an environment with restricted freedoms that affected political actors, civil society organizations, and the media. Authorities at the CNE were described as showing bias in favor of the government and against opposition candidacies during the electoral process.
“Excessive legal barriers”
It was added that the voter registry update faced numerous problems, including very tight deadlines, relatively few registration sites, and a limited public information and outreach campaign. The report further noted that the situation worsened abroad, where citizens faced excessive, including arbitrary, barriers to registering from overseas.
The report also asserted that party and candidate registration did not meet international standards, and in recent years opposition formations faced judicial interventions that weakened their most socially and politically recognized leaders to benefit individuals aligned with the government, influencing the composition of their candidacies.
The organization emphasized, in a particularly important point, that the eligibility of major opposition forces was subject to the discretionary decisions of electoral authorities, which took actions without respecting basic legal principles.
“Notable imbalance”
The Carter Center highlighted that the electoral campaign unfolded with a marked tilt in favor of the government across all fronts. The official candidacy enjoyed substantial resources, translating into a large disproportion of campaign rallies, murals, billboards, and posters backing the government.
It also noted the misuse of public resources, including the deployment of government vehicles, the mobilization of state officials for campaign tasks, and the use of social programs for campaigning purposes.
The Carter Center deployed 17 experts and observers starting June 29, with teams in Caracas, Barinas, Maracaibo, and Valencia. The mission engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including the CNE, candidates, political parties, and civil society organizations, among others. The center plans to publish a final report detailing all findings in its mission’s forthcoming report, with a full account of observations and assessments already outlined in the released statement.