Latin American experts prepare observer mission for Venezuelan elections

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America (CEELA), Nicanor Moscoso, began this Monday a series of meetings in Venezuela to agree on the terms of a mission for the local and regional elections of next November, informed the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Moscoso held a meeting with the president of the CNE, Pedro Calzadilla, with whom he talked “about the conditions for the development of the mission’s activities”, the electoral body said in a press release.

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As part of his activities in Venezuela, Moscoso will also witness the beginning of the audit of the electoral registry to be carried out this Tuesday, according to the information released by the CNE.

In said audit, “all the movements registered in the voters’ database are reviewed to guarantee the data’s transparency and consistency,” added the information.

CEELA also accompanied the parliamentary elections of December 6 in Venezuela with an “eminently technical” mission that did not make any pronouncement on the political situation of the Caribbean country.

The bulk of the opposition did not participate in those elections, considering that it was a “fraud” due to the composition of the CNE and the judicial intervention of the main opposition parties.

On that occasion, Moscoso endorsed the Venezuelan electoral system, which he considered the “best in Latin America”, even though it has been questioned in the past by Smartmatic, the company that provided support for years to the CNE for the counting of votes and until 2017.

According to what Smartmatic said, the voting machines were manipulated to elect the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) that was installed that year.

Smartmatic notes that the integrity of the automated election system was not compromised.

On election night, July 30, 2017, Venezuelan election authorities chose to disregard the turnout results compiled by the system and reported falsely inflated voter turnout information, writes Smartmatic in a note to The Rio Times.

Shortly after results were announced, Smartmatic blew the whistle on this government-perpetrated fraud and closed operations in Venezuela.

CEELA also sent an electoral accompaniment mission in the 2018 presidential elections, in which Nicolás Maduro was re-elected, a process not recognized by a good part of the international community.