VENEZUELA: UPS AND DOWNS OF AN ELECTION OBSERVER
VENEZUELA: UPS AND DOWNS OF AN ELECTION OBSERVER
Published on: Fri Apr 26, 2013
Author: Julia Buxton
Source: LAB
Julia Buxton has been an observer at elections in Venezuela for nearly twenty years. In April 2013 this was the first election without Hugo Chávez since 1999. This is her report.
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My team went out of their way to check the opposition MUD had witnesses present at each polling station and at the multiplicity of voting tables within each station. We asked each and every witness we spoke to if they had any concerns or issues to raise. No single problem was reported: no problems with the biometric finger print reader, with the touchscreen machines, with the election register, with the allocation of tables, with the time it took to vote. We noted how efficaciously the voting tables functioned, elections having acquired a level of routinisation that breeds capacity and speed of voting. Also observed was how communities worked together across partisan difference, sharing food, coffee and water at the polling stations throughout the long and hot day.
At no point did we see MUD witnesses or voting table functionaries being marched out of polling stations at gun point as alleged by the MUD after the votes were counted. We saw no attempt to block people voting or intimidation by PSUV supporters.[4] On the contrary: election day in Barinas was a muted affair, begetting as much excitement and intensity as the parish council elections in my home town of Ilkley.
We were at a polling station with 7 tables when the voting process began to close at 6pm. We moved freely around the 7 electronic machines as they totalised the vote and issued final vote count receipts. Capriles, Capriles, Capriles – each time with a tiny margin. There was no reaction at the voting tables. Administrators simply got on with packing up. And there was no one outside when we left the polling station, no great throng of voters desperate to know the result, no party or anxiety.
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In this context, the violence of the following day was not expected....
Back in Caracas and holed up in the Tamanaco hotel on the ‘good side’ of town, the evening was spent listening to the endless honk of car horns and clatter of pots and pans as Capriles supporters responded to their defeated candidate's request that they protest as yet unproven allegations of election fraud. Reunited with other British delegates and American colleagues from the US Guild of Lawyers we briefly contemplated venturing out, but a short trip to the local supermarket evidenced this was not a night for strolling the streets. Like Maduro’s supporters, we gave way in the face of the bitter fury of the defeated, a hunkering down that will inevitably characterise the years ahead for the new government.
http://lab.org.uk/venezuela-ups-and-downs-of-an-election-observer
= new reply since forum marked as read
influence other countries not to accept the results of the elections have also failed. Seems when you stand up for something, as Venezuela has, weaklings who are easily influenced see the folly of being on the wrong side of history.
There have been arrests I read of some of the imposters. Hopefully a thorough investigation will uncover the source of the financing for these treasonous acts, on the part of any actual Venezuelans and long prison sentences for the enemies of the country.
Chavez was very wise. He didn't just focus on Venezuela, he knew the threat from outside could only be dealt with by establishing strong alliances between all Latin American nations. I saw today that that foresight paid off as the attempt to have other nations in the region refuse to accept the election results, failed.
for Venezuela's strength and Chavez' brilliant pre-planning for just such an event as this.
From the article:
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So many people were sickened and disgusted which this US-supported troll showed up in the offices of George W. Bush, flown there and paid for by U.S. tax payers' hard earned tax dollars without their consent, or even without any idea of what that dirty lie is all about.
Hugh O Shaughnessy is just the one to hand her a real moment of insecurity. He's completely worthwhile, something completely foreign to people like her.
