Amid an ongoing cyber attack and widespread electricity blackouts, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) was to release detailed poll-by-poll voting results on August 28. The CNE issued a statement on August 26 underlining that it would comply with the Supreme Court’s order and with widespread demands to publish the detailed results.
The narrative of Washington and the Venezuelan far-right opposition demanding the release of the voting records is nothing but an excuse to continue its continued coup attempt against Chavismo. On the other hand, Venezuelans, irrespective of whether they are Chavistas, opposition, or in the middle, are accustomed to seeing the detailed results of each polling station in any significant election.
Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice issued a ruling on August 22 confirming the electoral results announced by the CNE, which granted victory to the incumbent President Nicolás Maduro of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) by a seven-point margin. The court case resulted from an appeal initiated by the president in order to clarify any uncertainty regarding the results disputed by the opposition.
However, the court also asked the CNE to publish detailed results of each polling station by the legal deadline, which is 30 days following the election. Thus, the CNE was expected to publish these results on August 28. Following Venezuelan elections, the CNE’s publication of poll-by-poll results is standard procedure.
Historically, CNE’s transparency has helped to foster confidence in the country’s electoral process and in the democratic processes of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. The demand to publish detailed results has been echoed by corporate legacy media and the US-backed opposition within Venezuela. In addition, the demand has been reiterated by centre-left politicians, such as Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who have traditionally retained relatively warm ties with Venezuela’s socialist administration. In Venezuela, Chavistas and everyday voters also expect the results to be published both to strengthen their trust in the country’s electoral system and to attempt to dispel the claims of the opposition, which have resulted in a spike in political tension since the election took place.
Despite the CNE being subjected to a new wave of cyber attacks and Venezuela being affected last week by two nationwide electrical blackouts allegedly originating from the far-right opposition, there has been an erosion of confidence in the CNE, as it has failed to deliver on its promise of August 26. This failure has been compounded by the CNE’s complete silence and lack of proper communication.
It is possible that the CNE is suffering from renewed cyber attacks, since its website remains out of service. If that is the case, then the CNE should issue a statement clarifying this, and possibly initiate a judicial appeal to allow the CNE to delay publication of the detailed results in the unprecedented circumstances. Furthermore, in its August 26 statement, the CNE did not indicate that it anticipated any problems issuing the results although, at that time, the CNE website had been out of service for 28 consecutive days. It was anticipated that the CNE would find an alternative method to publish the results, which should not have been impossible.
Faced with the CNE website subjection to cyber attacks, many Venezuelans have mentioned alternative avenues that could be used to publicise the electoral results. One option could be the publication of a results booklet, in PDF format, with detailed results by states, municipalities, parishes, voting centres and polling stations. The file could be disseminated via social media and posted on relevant Venezuelan public websites.
Others suggest that the detailed results could be disseminated in a video by Venezuelan electoral authorities. The Supreme Court had instructed the CNE to publish the results in its official Gazette; that option is there as well. Since the information is there and it was ratified by the Supreme Court, there should be no excuses to delay its release. Venezuelan democracy might be adversely affected by this opacity and that might affect upcoming elections, such as next year’s regional elections or the 2026 parliamentary elections.
This is not the first time that the CNE has demonstrated its inability to communicate with the public. Earlier this year, the CNE prevented Corina Yoris from registering as the presidential candidate of the US-backed opposition’s Unitary Platform. At the time, PSUV politician and National Assembly Deputy Iris Varela stated that Yoris’ disqualification was due to the fact that she held dual Uruguayan-Venezuelan citizenship, but the CNE’s silence on the matter was inappropriate. It is the electoral council, not individuals or members of the parliament or the government, that is responsible for issuing statements on electoral decisions,
The release of the detailed electoral results certainly will not stop the ongoing coup attempt launched by the Venezuelan far-right opposition under the direction of the White House, but it will strengthen the trust of Venezuelans in their democratic institutions.
The debate regarding the release of the detailed electoral results has mostly been carried out on the international level rather than inside Venezuela. This might be explained by the level of attacks that Venezuelans have been facing since the re-election of Maduro, with street violence, cyber attacks and, most recently, electrical blackouts; however, the topic itself should not be dismissed.
At this time, tens of thousands of Venezuelans, alongside socialist and anti-imperialists around the world, have rallied to defend Venezuela’s revolutionary process against yet another US-backed coup attempt centred around the election. However, without a statement by the CNE regarding these detailed results, and with absolutely no communication from any official channel providing any sort of rationale for the failure to publish the poll-by-poll results, those standing in solidarity with the Chavista project might feel left alone in the task of defending the Bolivarian Revolution.
[Reprinted from Orinoco Tribune.]