Election results verification: Venezuela’s path to progress

Following the conclusion of Venezuela’s presidential election, whose results were widely questioned both within Venezuela and by most of its Latin American neighbors, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) convened an extraordinary session on July 31, under my chairmanship, in an attempt to reach a consensus among the 32 current member states.

The meeting was requested by 12 countries to discuss the results of the Venezuelan election. Unusually, nine foreign ministers attended the Permanent Council, which is usually attended by permanent representatives or their alternates. The ministers represented six South American countries and three Central American countries, all of which publicly expressed serious concerns about the validity of the election that declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner.

Venezuela is in chaos, with thousands taking to the streets in open protest. Before the election, polls showed opposition candidate Edmundo González would win in a landslide. González is the face of the energetic María Corina Machado, who was barred from running for president by Maduro’s government but is campaigning on González’s behalf.

Although the government declared Maduro the winner and refuted the opposition’s claim that the election results did not match the vote counts at polling stations, local observer groups insisted that the government’s statement was false. Of course, it is not uncommon for the opposition to dispute the results of an election after losing an election around the world, so the opposition’s claims alone are not enough to prove that the election results are wrong.

However, the Carter Center, a well-known international organization invited by the Maduro government to observe the election, also expressed serious concerns about the election process. It said that the election process “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any stage and violated multiple provisions of the country’s laws,” and criticized the National Electoral Council (CNE) for its arbitrary decision not to register opposition candidates.

Given the Maduro government’s claims that the election results were accurate, and the conflicting accounts of fraud, it was necessary to verify the results of the vote to dispel any doubts about the validity of the results. Therefore, in advance of the Permanent Council meeting, I, as Chair, circulated a draft resolution recognizing the high voter turnout; acknowledging that the results were disputed; recalling the agreement reached by Venezuelan political parties in Barbados in October 2023 on political rights and electoral guarantees for all; and “urging” the NEC to “publish the results of the presidential election vote at every polling station and to conduct a full recount of the ballots in the presence of independent international observers in a spirit of full transparency to verify the results.”

This request is not unprecedented. In 2020, the OAS, Commonwealth, EU and CARICOM made similar requests to Guyana to resolve the electoral dispute. To ensure full participation, I convened an informal meeting of all member states to discuss the draft resolution and seek consensus.

At an informal meeting of all OAS member states held before the formal Council meeting, the resolution was amended to incorporate legal and institutional considerations, but one point of disagreement remained. Brazil objected to urging the NEC to conduct verification with “international observers,” arguing that such observations could only be conducted at the invitation of the government. This view caused the draft resolution to become entangled, despite the consensus among all parties urging the NEC to publish the vote and conduct a full verification.

Five Latin American ministers, most notably Peru’s foreign minister, insisted on retaining the reference to international observers and said they would ask the Security Council to hold a vote, abandoning the attempt to adopt the resolution by consensus. Ultimately, the resolution was not adopted. Although no country voted against, five countries were absent and 11 countries abstained, so the 17 votes in favor were not enough for an absolute majority. Nevertheless, many member states made it clear that they were deeply disturbed by the situation in Venezuela. Of the 14 CARICOM countries, four voted in favor, seven abstained and three were absent.

Since then, events have moved swiftly. On August 1, the governments of Colombia, Brazil and Mexico called on Venezuelan authorities to “promptly” publish election data “disaggregated by polling station.” Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner also supported the call, suggesting that left-wing parties in Latin America also want to verify the results. On August 2, the heads of government of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), while congratulating Maduro on his election and calling for national reconciliation, also reiterated their “adherence to the principle that elections must be free, express the will of the people, be free from external interference, be fair and impartial, be conducted in good faith and be subject to the decisions of an independent mechanism that has relevant safeguards to verify and arbitrate any disputes.”

In addition, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “full transparency” and “timely publication of the election results and the distribution of polling stations.” It is worth noting that Pope Francis called on all parties to “seek the truth” after two Venezuelan cardinals, Baltasar Porras and Diego Padrón, claimed that the Maduro government may have “fabricated” the election results “to suit its interests” to prove that Maduro did win the election.

It is now clear that while some countries, including in the Caribbean, want to show friendship to Maduro, who, along with the late President Hugo Chavez, has provided these countries with a decade-long oil lifeline since the global financial crisis in 2008, there are growing calls from the international community to verify the results of the July 28 election. Such protests have come mainly from Venezuela’s South and Central American neighbors, which have shouldered the burden of hosting nearly 8 million Venezuelan refugees. Protesters have been arrested since the election, prompting calls from the United Nations human rights group and other international organizations for action. The Venezuelan government has confirmed that more than 1,000 people have been arrested.

“For peace in Venezuela and for the country’s improved and developing relations with its neighbors and the international community, it is essential that the results of the election be verified. Both candidates in the election – Maduro and González – are confident of their victory; therefore, both should welcome a verification process that would confirm their positions.”

(The author is the Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organization of American States. The views expressed in this article are his own. For replies and previous comments, please visit: www.sirronaldsanders.com)