Caribbean leaders cautious about Venezuela election results

St. George’s, Grenada, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders today expressed caution about the results of Venezuela’s presidential election, which saw incumbent President Nicolas Maduro retain power.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that elections consist of multiple components, including operations and arrangements leading up to the polls.

Other components, he said, include “the election itself on Election Day and, of course, the mechanisms after the election, the mechanisms to ensure that the votes are counted” and a “robust verification process.”

Ali said there also needs to be a credible process “that allows people to make claims that are recognized by law – recounts and so on.”

“So these are the electoral powers. We are not declaring, we cannot declare any one outcome. As I said, we don’t have the details in front of us. But these are the components that we support in any democratic election,” Ali told CMC.

– advertise –

Guyana and Venezuela have a long-standing border dispute, and both countries are currently awaiting a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

‘Democracy will continue to prevail’

Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in response to Rosseau that “the entity that oversees and manages Venezuela’s elections has stated that President Maduro and his party have been re-elected.”

“We therefore congratulate President Maduro on his re-election, just as we congratulate elections around the world. We look forward to working with him on a bilateral and multilateral basis over the next six years,” he told CMC.

Skerrit said that Venezuela remains a very important player in the Western Hemisphere from many perspectives, and we congratulate the Venezuelan people on a largely peaceful and incident-free election.

“I think democracy will continue to prevail, and I hope and pray that we can all respect the results of the election and continue to work with Venezuela and its people … to overcome its own challenges and, of course, to work on global issues. So, from the Dominican perspective, we congratulate President Maduro,” he said.

With 80 percent of the votes counted, Maduro had 51 percent of the vote, compared with 44 percent for his main rival, according to partial results announced by Elvis Amoroso, the head of the National Electoral Council and a close ally of Maduro.

However, the opposition considered the CNE’s announcement fraudulent and promised to contest the results.

The party said its candidate, Edmundo González, had won 70 percent of the vote and insisted he was the legitimate president-elect. The opposition has rallied behind Mr. González in an effort to oust Mr. Maduro, who has been in power for 11 years.

Western countries have called on Venezuela to ensure Sunday’s election is free, fair and transparent.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed skepticism after the election results were announced, saying the United States had “grave concerns that the results announced do not reflect the will or vote of the Venezuelan people.”

In addition, the UK Foreign Office also expressed concern about the results and called for “full and detailed results to be published to ensure that the results are reflected.”

Politics is ‘hard work’

But Prime Minister Skerrit told CMC that “in every country, there are issues of free and fair elections and who wins and who doesn’t.”

“I mean, this was the case in the United States a few years ago. You know, even today, there are millions of Americans who believe that President Biden did not win. We believe that President Biden won; we believe that the United States had a free and fair election,” he said.

“I think you see there is a growing phenomenon among the opposition parties where they seem to have some kind of external support and therefore they don’t need to work. They just sit at home, post on Facebook or social media or radio shows; don’t seek to influence the lives of the people while in opposition and believe there is some external entity that can enable them to become the government of the country.”

Skerrit described politics as “hard work” and added that politics is about people.

“Politics is about impacting people’s lives in a positive way. People who sincerely represent the interests of the people must demonstrate that, not wait until they enter government to do so, but make it part of their life experience,” he said.

“So you’re always going to have these issues. And I think the questions that the Venezuelan people are likely to ask about the election and the results of the election are questions that they should be allowed to deal with within their own constitutional and legal framework.”

The Dominican prime minister reiterated that if the electoral body responsible for overseeing Venezuela’s elections says “the elections were conducted freely and fairly and they announce the results not only to the Venezuelan people but to all of us, who am I to question it? Who am I to question it? I am not in a position to question the results. We have to accept the results announced by that body.”

“Venezuela must have peace”

Skerrit’s Saint Lucian counterpart, Philip J. Pierre, said he was “very happy that the elections took place smoothly” and without violence.

“The election results that have been announced indicate that President Maduro has won. At this point I cannot make any definitive statement as to whether President Maduro has won. I hope that after all the audits are completed and the independent observers submit their reports, I believe the results will be upheld and accepted by the world,” he told CMC.

“What matters is peace, and Venezuela must have peace. Venezuela cannot continue to be in a situation where the people are suffering. I have always stressed this: it is the Venezuelan people who are suffering.”

He said that if election observers and poll audits show Maduro won, then “I think the results should be accepted and Venezuela should be allowed to function the way it should for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.”

Asked if he thought CARICOM should comment on the election, Pierre replied that the 15-member regional integration organization had been a good neighbor to the South American country.

“CARICOM was the party that brokered the agreement or the deal between Venezuela and Guyana. So I think CARICOM will have its say. But for now, I think when all the reports come out, the results will show that the initial remarks or the initial statistics were correct and Venezuela will be allowed to take its rightful place in the world and do what it has to do to help humanity progress,” he said.

Maduro is an important partner

Earlier, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines expressed the hope that CARICOM leaders would issue a statement on the results of the Venezuelan presidential election.

Gonsalves, a staunch ally of President Maduro, said he had sent a message of congratulations to the Venezuelan leader and hoped that CARICOM leaders, who are meeting here for their 47th regular session, would do the same.

“Well, I have called the Venezuelan government to congratulate Nicolas Maduro on his victory,” Gonsalves told CMC, adding that “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will make its own statement.”

Gonçalves said the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America (ALBA) had already issued a statement on the elections.

“Well, I expect that most CARICOM countries will do so because a significant number of us are members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, and the declaration that I have just approved, I have no doubt that it will be approved.”

Goncalves told CMC that the history of Venezuelan elections showed that they were free and fair, but in the last election some claimed that the polls did not reflect the will of the people.

But he pointed out that the Carter Center in the United States reported that Venezuela’s electoral mechanism is one of the most sophisticated and transparent in the world.

“But you know, in some ways, politics prevails. But in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we are pleased with it, and from our people on the ground, including from my ambassador in Caracas – I received his report last night. So we congratulate Nicolás Maduro on his re-election as president,” Goncalves said.

“There may be some countries that want to wait and see. I don’t know, but it will certainly come up at some point today, either in this morning’s meeting or this afternoon’s meeting. But I would like to see a statement from CARICOM congratulating Maduro on his re-election as president. He is a valued partner of ours and important for peace and security in our region, including on the border with Guyana.”