Europe EU does not recognize Maduro's claimed election victory
The European Union will not recognize the official result of the presidential election in Venezuela without full disclosure of the election documents. This was announced on Sunday evening by Peter Stano, spokesman for EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell.
05.08.2024, 08:00
SDA
Following an election last Sunday that was accompanied by allegations of fraud, the CNE, the electoral authority loyal to the government, declared authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, the winner of the election. However, it has not yet published the broken-down results of the individual voting districts. According to the opposition, these showed that their candidate Edmundo González Urrutia had won by a clear margin over Maduro.
Any attempt to delay the full publication of the official election results would only cast further doubt on their credibility, the EU statement continued. Stano also expressed the EU's concern about a growing number of "arbitrary arrests" and the ongoing harassment of the opposition.
The USA and half a dozen Latin American countries have already recognized opposition candidate González as the winner. On Sunday, Germany and other European countries demanded the publication of the election documents. "We express our deep concern about the situation in Venezuela following last Sunday's presidential elections," said a joint statement from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
