Politics
Associated Press analysis of opposition ballots raise doubts about Venezuelan election results
The AP reviewed almost 24,000 images of the election records, representing the results of 79% of the voting machines
August 4, 2024 11:24am
Updated: August 5, 2024 9:02am
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By Marielbis Rojas
An analysis carried out by The Associated Press of electoral records published by the opposition shows that its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, significantly won the July 28 presidential elections, casting serious doubts on the declaration of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in which he was re-elected dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The AP reviewed nearly 24,000 images of election records, representing the results of 79% of voting machines. Each record contained the vote count encrypted in QR codes, which the news agency decoded using a program and analyzed, resulting in counts of 10.26 million votes.
According to the study, González received 6.89 million votes, almost half a million more than the CNE says Maduro obtained. The counts also show that the dictator received only 3.13 million votes.
The CNE, controlled by the regime, had updated its results on Friday, indicating that of 96.87% of the minutes, Maduro had 6.4 million votes and González 5.3 million.
The president of the electoral governing body, Elvis Amoroso, attributed the delay in the update to “massive computer attacks from different parts of the world” that “delayed the transmission of the minutes and the process of dissemination of results.”
The news agency successfully extracted data from 96% of the minutes released. The remaining 4% of the images were of poor quality to be analyzed.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado asked this Saturday in an opposition rally to maintain a "peaceful and civic" struggle but with "strength" since, she said, the elections of July 28 marked a "milestone" on which the "transition to democracy" in Venezuela.
Between cries of "freedom," Machado highlighted the strength of the citizens who have taken to the streets despite the repression against the demonstrations that took place between Monday and Tuesday, in rejection of the official electoral results that gave dictator Maduro the winner.
