U.S., EU won't recognize vote outcome
International leaders condemn it as `charade'
CA R ACA S • The United States, the European Union and more than a dozen Latin American countries said on Monday they would not recognize the results of a parliamentary election in Venezuela, which saw allies of President Nicolas Maduro win a majority.
Just 31 per cent of 20 million eligible voters participated in Sunday's election, the electoral council said early on Monday, less than half the turnout rate in the previous congressional elections in 2015. The opposition had boycotted the vote, calling it a farce meant to consolidate a dictatorship.
The results nonetheless return the congress to Maduro's control, despite an economy in tatters, an aggressive U.S. sanctions program, and a mass migration exodus. An alliance of parties called the Great Patriotic Pole that backs Maduro won 68.9 per cent of the votes cast, according to figures published on Monday.
“The United States, along with numerous other democracies around the world, condemns this charade which failed to meet any minimum standard of credibility,” U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.
The EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the election “failed to comply with the minimum international standards,” while a group of Latin American countries including Brazil and Colombia issued a statement saying the vote “lacks legality and legitimacy.”
Earlier in the year, the Supreme Court had put several opposition parties in the hands of politicians expelled from those same parties for alleged links to Maduro — one of the major reasons the opposition had called the vote a sham.
The elections council was also named without the opposition's participation, and Maduro refused to allow meaningful electoral observation. Maduro allies have said the electoral conditions were the same as a 2015 parliamentary vote the opposition won. “Venezuela already has a new National Assembly,” Maduro said Monday. “A great victory, without a doubt.”
The opposition in 2015 won control of the National Assembly in a landslide, but the pro-Maduro Supreme Court blocked even the most basic legislation. In 2017, Maduro supplanted parliament with the creation of an all-powerful parallel body known as the National Constituent Assembly.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido last year used his role as speaker of the National Assembly to stake a claim to be Venezuela's legitimate president, on the basis Maduro's 2018 re-election was rigged, earning the recognition of more than 50 countries.