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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Mon Apr 22, 2013, 04:26 AM Apr 2013

Claims of Fraud in Venezuela: The Fake Evidence of Henrique Capriles

Claims of Fraud in Venezuela: The Fake Evidence of Henrique Capriles
By Chris Carlson. Venezuela Analysis
Venezuela Analysis
Sunday, Apr 21, 2013

Immediately after Nicolas Maduro was elected to the presidency of Venezuela last Sunday, opposition candidate Henrique Capriles refused to acknowledge the results of the election, and claimed that the government had committed fraud. In what follows, I will list all of the alleged evidence of fraud cited by Capriles, and explain why every single example is either demonstrably false, or extremely implausible.

The first example given by the Capriles campaign has to do with what is known as an “assisted vote” in which electoral authorities assist certain voters in using the electoral machine. The Capriles campaign presented on Sunday videos of various people being aided in this way at various voting centers.

The claim was that with “assisted voting” people were being pressured by electoral authorities to vote for Nicolas Maduro, and that the votes at those voting centers should therefore be voided. Capriles claimed that this had happened at 564 different voting centers, affecting nearly 1.5 million voters. However, there was not a single independent report of any voters who said they were not able to vote for who they wanted. Not a single voter or witness came forward to say that they had been obligated to vote for one candidate or the other.

The “assisted vote” exists as a mechanism that voters can request if they do not understand how to use the electoral machine, or if they have physical limitations that make it difficult for them to vote alone. As one Venezuelan commented on the videoon Youtube, “You can ask to have someone help you vote if you want. I asked for help the first time I voted and it was a family friend who was there. My god, these people [the opposition] will make up anything."

More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_65584.shtml

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