Capriles issues 24 hour ultimatum over "stolen" votes

[Catherina]

25 April 2013 Last updated at 04:13 GMT

Venezuela's Henrique Capriles issues ultimatum over vote audit

Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has threatened to take action over disputed votes he claims were "stolen" by Nicolas Maduro's government.


Henrique Capriles told a news conference he would not accept a "joke audit" of the election results

Mr Capriles demanded details of an audit of the vote the electoral council says it will carry out.

Mr Capriles said the council had a "deadline" of Thursday, but did not specify what action he would take.

...

He repeated his accusations that Mr Maduro had manipulated poll results, telling a news conference: "The truth - and it is as big as our country is wide - is that you stole the election. That is the truth. "You stole this electoral process, and you have to explain that to this country and to the world."

...

Prisons Minister Iris Varela, meanwhile, has said a jail cell awaits Mr Capriles.

....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22289588

Meanwhile, even a casual observer would advise these buffoons to synchronize their stories better

Sunday April 21, 2013
Capriles Campaign Manager: We never said we won the elections


Antichavista command director, Carlos Ocariz, said the opposition never said that their candidate had achieved electoral victory this April 14 (Photo: File)


Antichavista campaign director and current mayor of Sucre (west of Caracas), Carlos Ocariz, said in an interview for print Venezuelan opposition never said that their candidate had achieved electoral victory this April 14.

"We've never said that the candidate Henrique Capriles won," he reiterated. The opposition leader said that the statements of its leadership, after the announcement of the first electoral bulletin led to President Nicolas Maduro winner with 50.66% of the total votes counted for a total of 7,505,338 votes were intended to request an audit. "We believe that if the voting process had not submitted the alleged irregularities, the result would have been different."

However, the former presidential candidate antichavista, went to the country and told it to openly ignore the April 14 election results issued by the CNE. "We demand that every vote is recounted, because based on the work of our campaign headquarters, we have a different result than was announced tonight."

...

http://www.telesurtv.net/articulos/2013/04/20/comando-antichavista-nunca-hemos-dicho-que-ganamos-las-elecciones-9931.html

Leaked phone calls: Capriles just wanted to make a scandal (translation at link)

Phone calls between members of the opposition show they are conscious that they lost the election. In the video below, Dr. Luis Ugueto Arizmendi, an engineer, economist and former Minister of the Finance, "one of the closest advisers to Henrique Capriles, who takes part in meetings that happens every Monday in a place they call "La Peña", recognizes that Capriles lost election.

[bahrbearian]

1. I'd like to know what John Kerry has to say...,Oh, never mind.

[Catherina]

2. Anything John Kerry has to say is about 9 years too late lol n/t

[Catherina]

3. Carpriles little threat includes "legal and international actions",

including "legal and international actions",

Venezuela: Capriles, hysterical, still attacking institutions


AVN - On Wednesday night, he defeated candidate Henrique Capriles increased his attacks on the democratic institutions, particularly the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Executive, during a press conference characterized, as in other cases, by the presence of private media whose informative and editorial policies endorse the arguments of the rightwing.

...

After his ultimatum, the rightwing candidate added that if not satisfied with the conditions for auditing the voting instruments "there will be other announcements and other actions within the Constitution", including "legal and international actions",...

...

http://www.contrainjerencia.com/?p=66262

[Judi Lynn]

11. Here's the international action George W Bush got from Australia and England:

[center]

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/09/07/BOMS_wideweb__470x262,0.jpg

[/center]

[ocpagu]

17. LOL.

He was so loved...

[Starry Messenger]

4. I have this song running through my head now...

[Catherina]

5. That is so perfect! He's acting like he's being deprived of his birthright n/t

[Starry Messenger]

7. Democracy is hard werk!

He's also starting to look and act like a man desperate to keep himself in the news cycle. If he's trying to keep up the image of "heroic freedom fighter" in the boug. press, he'd better get a better PR man.

[Catherina]

8. No no lol, I like his PR team just fine lol!

If I ever wanted to totally discredit an organization, I'd hire his PR team in a flash. You don't even need to hand them any rope lol, they bring it themselves.

Even some of his diehard supporters are getting pissed off lol.

Maduro wins, Capriles wanders into the wilderness
15.4.13

...

Despite all that, Henrique Capriles ran against Hugo Chavez last year, pretending that everything was kosher at the electoral level. At that time, one of his collaborators (Ramon Guillermo Aveledo) irresponsibly lied to his constituency, when he falsely claimed that the "electoral system had been sufficiently audited." This year Capriles ran against Nicolas Maduro, adopting a more confrontational tone. If electoral results are anything to go by, the combination of Chavez's passing with a deterioration of every day living and an attacking mode got Capriles a few thousand votes more and close to victory. That being said, arguments about Nicolas Maduro not having legitimacy to govern, because he got some 230,000 votes more than Capriles, is, frankly, preposterous. Unless, of course, the Capriles team present the smoking gun.

...

Maduro got more votes than Capriles, that's that, end of the story. You just can't enter a race, accepting that everything is stacked against you, and when you lose, turn round and say: "we do not recognise this result", as Capriles said yesterday. That is an untenable position, for Capriles knew, before entering the race, that everything was stacked against him. He knew that the State was fully behind Maduro. He knew Maduro's appointment was unconstitutional. He knew Maduro's every action, since January 10, was illegitimate. He knew that no public resource would be spared to get Maduro elected. And yet, he did participate, "hoping" that he would be victorious. Hoping? Read the first paragraph again. How could a victory be "hoped" when, as a matter of fact, the political realities described above have not changed? How can someone, knowing all of the above, enter a race and then cry foul calling the winner illegitimate? Why is Maduro illegitimate today, but wasn't when Capriles filed his candidacy? Capriles, and his team, should have done that earlier. Not today, not now. A proverbial case of "too little too late."

Utter nonsense. Appalling. Shameful. That's what it is. This is not a situation where two political parties share, in similar amounts, institutional and political power. Far from it. This is a situation where one party controls everything, and the other controls nothing, regardless of how many votes it got yesterday. Maduro does not need to invite Capriles for a round of hard political negotiations in order to reach a compromise that will allow him to govern Venezuela. No. This is no Cameron and Clegg. Rather, it is chavismo, as its usual self, pulling all power levers.

What to make of Capriles' own election as Governor of Miranda? The electoral scenario then was just as dodgy as it is today. Is he calling himself illegitimate? Furthermore, is he questioning the legitimacy of his own votes yesterday? How about other ruling governors, and mayors? How about the representatives of the opposition (in minority) in Congress, elected by the same system under the same conditions: are they illegitimate too?

Therefore I can not but express contempt for Henrique Capriles' irresponsible antics. He's not the brightest bulb all right, but even then, he's been in politics long enough to have realised that once the die is cast, there's no turning back.

http://alekboyd.blogspot.com/2013/04/maduro-wins-capriles-wilderness.html

[Starry Messenger]

10. LOL, you are right. The phrase "not ready for prime-time" is flashing brightly here.

Ouch, I'm sure many of his former supporters are thinking similar things. The Capriles camp is a trainwreck with the smell of rotting fish coming off it. Politicians have a short shelf-life after they lose.

[joshcryer]

13. Bit silly, 70% of Venezuelans support a recount and audit.

[bvar22]

6. Cui Bono?

The last I looked, the WORLD had congratulated Maduro on his WIN,
and the Venezuelan People on their election,
with ONE exception...The Obama Administration and the US Government.

Cui Bono from Capriles petulant "demands",
and WHO is paying the freight?

(He looks a little wild eyed in the photos)

[Catherina]

9. The US is backing itself into a ridiculous corner

It's time the Obama administration started listening to 'them that voted it in' and not the rightwing.

[killbotfactory]

12. I'm surprised he wasn't satisfied by the audit he demanded.

[joshcryer]

14. They didn't givehim said audit.

They claimed they were going to audit (after UNSUR pressure) but then, typically, backed down and set up the conditions for which the audit was to be done (Katherine Harris style).

[killbotfactory]

16. Really now

They know they lost and have no way to prove election fraud. They would never accept an audit/recount/whatever, regardless. No matter the outcome or process, they would complain that the system would have been "corrupted" by "chavistas" who already altered all the documents.

[joshcryer]

19. The more the CNE does what they demand...

...the more marginalized the opposition becomes.

Why people don't get this I don't understand.

The CNE has no reason not to fully comply.

But the CNE hasn't shown ethics better than Katherine Harris.

So there's that.

[Catherina]

15. Nope. CNE did not meet this clown's imperial "demand"

Venezuela’s opposition leader says he will boycott audit of election results, demands new vote

By Associated Press,

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles announced Thursday that his movement will boycott an audit of election results and push the government to hold a new presidential ballot.

He said the opposition would not participate in the audit because the National Electoral Council did not meet its demand for an examination of registers containing voters’ signatures and fingerprints.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelas-opposition-leader-says-he-will-boycott-audit-of-election-results/2013/04/25/07805504-ae19-11e2-b240-9ef3a72c67cc_story.html

[ocpagu]

18. I'm glad CNE didn't bend to Capriles and his gang...

... since they couldn't care less about the results. They just want to go along with their script written before the elections...