CNE will not reverse Maduro’s victory despite the audit

Sandra Oblitas, vice president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said that the audit of the elections in Venezuela, which was established as a resolution over the strong opposition claims due to irregularities in the electoral process, will not revert the results of Nicolas Maduro’s victory in “any possible way.”

Oblitas warned “not to create false expectations about what an audit is, that in no way it could reverse the elections result”.

“There is no audit that may change the election results,” said Oblitas, and then reiterated that in Venezuela there is no counting of votes, because they are issued electronically.

On his behalf, the leader of the Mesa de la Unidad Democratica (MUD), Henrique Capriles, said that, once the audit is finished, there will not be other option than “repeating elections” in Venezuela.

Henrique Capriles

Capriles reported that they found “several irregularities” in 54% of votes audited so far and said that these alleged irregularities are “inconsistencies between the report and scrutiny, violence in voting centers, assisted votes, electoral campaign in voting centers, people who voted two to three times.”

Also, Capriles said the CNE wants to “make a simple review of numbers”, but once the audit is completed, “the results will be presented to the country and the world.” “From there, the government may be under the shadow of the legitimacy or illegitimacy,” he said.

“Maduro took office, but there is a shadow of illegality. If I were him, I’d be asking the CNE to review everything so that nobody doubts my victory.”