Carter Center says "no evidence" of outside hacking of Venezuela's electoral system, confirms opposition victory

The Carter Center, which participated as an observer in the Venezuelan presidential elections, confirmed Wednesday that “there is no evidence” Venezuela's electoral system was hacked by the opposition or outside forces on July 28, as Nicolás Maduro's totalitarian regime claims.

Jennie Lincoln, head of the Carter Center's observation mission, explained to AFP that “companies monitor and know when there are denials of service (hacks) and there was not one that night.”

“The transmission of voting data is by telephone line and satellite phone and not by computer. They have not lost data,” Lincoln added in an interview from Atlanta.

The expert recalled that National Electoral Council (CNE) President Elvis Amoroso said that “he would publish the results table by table on the website and give a CD to the political parties” when he announced a first bulletin, but “it is a promise which he never fulfilled.”

“Even though the playing field was very unequal, the Venezuelan people went to vote,” she continued. “The great irregularity of the election day was the lack of transparency of the CNE and the flagrant non-observance of its rules of the game in terms of showing the true vote of the people.”

The Carter Center has “analyzed the numbers” available along with other organizations and universities, and “confirms Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner with more than 60%” of the votes, she continued.

A week ago, the Organization for American States (OAS) said that the process “did not adapt” to the international parameters and standards of electoral integrity, so it "cannot be considered democratic."

Likewise, he highlighted that the electoral body, which declared dictator Nicolás Maduro the winner with more than two million votes left to be counted, has not announced the results broken down by table, which “constitutes a serious violation of electoral principles.”

The Carter Center deployed 17 experts and observers starting June 29, with teams in Caracas, Barinas, Maracaibo and Valencia, where they met with “a wide range of actors, including the CNE, candidates, political parties and civil society organizations,” among others.