UN calls for “peaceful resolution of electoral disputes” in Venezuela

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday called on “all parties (in Venezuela) to resolve any electoral dispute peacefully” and criticized the “arbitrary” arrests and detentions of citizens.

Guterres “reiterates its call for full transparency and recalls that every citizen has the right to participate in public affairs and that no one should be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention,” Guterres spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) certified on Friday that head of state Nicolás Maduro was re-elected in Sunday’s presidential election with 51.95% of the vote, compared to 43.18% for the majority opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, but has not yet published the minutes, presumably due to a cyberattack.

Meanwhile, the majority opposition bloc published its minutes on its own website, which would give a landslide victory to its candidate, who has the support of anti-Chavista leader María Corina Machado, who was disqualified from the election.

In a letter to the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Machado denounced Maduro’s “brutal repression” of protests over the results, reporting 20 deaths, 1,000 detainees and 11 enforced disappearances by state security forces.

The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, Elvis Amoroso, certified this Friday for the second time the victory of President Nicolás Maduro in the presidential elections with 96.87% of the votes counted. United Socialist of Venezuela (PSUV) obtained 51.95% of the votes against his main rival, the opposition Edmundo Urrutia, of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), with 43.18% of support.