EU to recognise ‘complete and verifiable’ results in Venezuela
The European Union The Venezuelan president said on Saturday that the Caracas authorities have not provided the “public evidence necessary” to declare Nicolás Maduro president of Venezuela, and that he will not be recognized as such until there are “complete and independently verifiable” results of the electoral records.
“Only complete and independently verifiable results will be accepted and recognized to ensure that the will of the Venezuelan people is respected.”said the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrellin a statement on behalf of the EU, which is “deeply concerned about the deepening political crisis in Venezuela”.
The statement is in line with what Borrell himself had already announced the day before in statements to the press in Santander (Spain), after the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela ratified Maduro as president, accepting the results released by the National Electoral Council (CNE), despite not providing the electoral records, as demanded by the international community.
To this day, the Twenty-seven stated in their statement, the Venezuelan authorities “They have not provided the public evidence necessary to evaluate the electoral process according to the standards set by the UN panel of experts.”.
The interim report of the United Nations Group of Experts, invited by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela to evaluate the general development of the elections, “has shed light on the electoral process and has highlighted the lack of justification of the results announced by the Venezuelan authorities,” the Twenty-Seven stressed.
The EU recalled that the CNE is the body legally and constitutionally responsible for the transparent and detailed publication of official election results.
The community bloc therefore urged the CNE once again to “publish and independently verify the official voting records of all polling stations.”
EU confirms that Edmundo González “would seem” to be the winner
The EU also stressed that the UN Group of Experts has confirmed that a sample of the revised results records published by the opposition exhibit the security features of the original results records, confirming their reliability.
According to publicly available copies of the minutes, Edmundo González Urrutia “would appear” to be the winner of the presidential election by a significant majority, Borrell said in the statement on behalf of the EU member states.
«The Venezuelan people must decide their own destiny. Their will must prevail»the EU stressed.
The UN expressed its intention to continue working with its regional partners to ensure that the will of the Venezuelan people as expressed at the polls is respected and to facilitate a Venezuelan-led dialogue that offers guarantees to both parties and leads to the restoration of democracy and the solution of the current humanitarian and socio-economic crisis.
The community club also states that Venezuelan authorities must respect the right of all Venezuelans to demonstrate peacefully and freely express their political opinions without fear of reprisals.
They must also refrain from using excessive force, end repression and harassment of the opposition and civil society, and release all political prisoners.
The EU also stressed that Human rights violations must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible must be held accountable.
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