The closing of polling stations in Venezuela begins

Posted: Nov 21, 2021 23:11 GMT

At a press conference before the end of electoral day, a group of international observers highlighted the broad participation of voters and the normality of the process.

As of 6:00 in the afternoon this Sunday, the closing of polling stations in Venezuela began after an electoral day of more than 12 hours. According to electoral regulations, after that time, if there are no voters in the lines of the voting centers, the polling stations are closed to begin the audit phase of the results. Otherwise, the process continues until there are no voters.

The National Electoral Council (CNE), through its Twitter account, ratified this information and announced that once the results are scrutinized, the citizen verification of 54% of the voting tables will be carried out, after a draw in each center.

In these elections they are called to vote 21 million Venezuelans, which will elect 23 governors, 335 mayors, 253 state council legislators and 2,471 councilors, for a total of 3,082 positions. More than 70,200 candidates ran for these elections.

For these elections, 14,262 voting centers were set up with 30,206 polling stations throughout the country.

International observers

Minutes before the closing of the polling stations, a group of international observers gave a short press conference from the headquarters of the National Electoral Council (CNE, in the center of Caracas.

The former Foreign Minister of Ecuador, Ricardo Patiño, one of the international companions, said that during his tour of the electoral centers he could observe “a lot of order and discipline on the issue of biosafety” and a “broad participation of the political parties of the Government and of those that are not “.

“We have been able to observe that in all cases there have been at least three witnesses from the different political parties” present at the polling stations.

# EnVideo📹 | International Veedor Ricardo Patiño affirmed that a massive and enthusiastic participation of the Venezuelan population was visible on this day. Likewise, he indicated that achieving this participation strengthens and consolidates Venezuelan democracy. # MegaElecciones2021pic.twitter.com / lANTgvCJ0C

– VTV CHANNEL 8 (@ VTVcanal8) November 21, 2021

For her part, the former president of the Ecuadorian Assembly, Gabriela Rivadeira, highlighted that the day passed “very calmly”.

“We want to acknowledge the entire previous process because it is worth mentioning the agreements in the dialogue tables in Mexico,” he said with reference to the negotiation process between the Government and various sectors of the opposition where the participation of opposition political parties that had been called to boycott previous elections because they considered them fraudulent and because they did not recognize the Venezuelan institutions.

Similarly, the Spanish politician Juan Carlos Monedero, who is also in the South American country, expressed that these votes “represent a turning point in the country“.

“We have seen peaceful elections. We have seen the meeting between the table witnesses of different parties,” he said, referring to his tour of voting centers. “With these elections the Government and the opposition recognize each otherIt is an enormous result, beyond what the polls say and marks a new normal in Venezuela, “according to Carlos Monedero.

Some 300 international observers attended these elections, including members of the Latin American Center of Electoral Experts (CEELA), the United Nations (UN), the Carter Center and the European Union (EU).

In this regard, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wrote on his Twitter account that the country “will strengthen political dialogue, democratic governance, the ability to face problems and find solutions.”

In Venezuela, what is going to emerge from now on is going to be good. Political dialogue, democratic governance, the ability to face problems and achieve solutions will be strengthened. I have faith and high hopes, for the years to come. pic.twitter.com/cmBjANDOOb

– Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) November 21, 2021

Days ago, the president had announced that next Monday he would convene the Federal Council of Government to establish a joint working table with the elected authorities.

“Strategy of duality of power”

The sociologist Franco Vielma, a researcher for the Misión Verdad portal, told RT that the South American country “managed to resist in an exemplary manner the situations of siege and external pressure,” which puts the country in an “exemplary situation to resolve the internal issue and face the international situation “.

Vielma referred to the “dual power strategy” that was tried to impose in Venezuela, with the support of the US Government, after the self-proclamation of former deputy Juan Guaidó as “president in charge” in 2019. This series of actions to ignoring the established powers resulted in the retention of assets of the Venezuelan State abroad and the resurgence of coercive measures in the country.

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