Guyana urges transparent verification of Venezuelan poll; supports calls for electoral process, law to be upheld

By Jarryl Bryan

As protests continue to rock the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was declared winner of the recent election despite widespread claims of electoral fraud, the Government of Guyana has joined calls from the international community for a transparent verification of the vote.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation emphasised the importance of ensuring that the Venezuelan elections reach the highest standards of transparency and accountability.

This is something that the unified Venezuelan opposition contends the 2024 elections did not meet… amid allegations that opposition observers were blocked from entering polling stations and criticisms over the delay by the Venezuelan National Election Council (CNE) to release the voting tally sheets produced by each precinct.
“Elections are about people exercising their constitutional right to elect a government of their choice in a free, fair and transparent process. It behooves all to ensure the integrity of that process through the highest standards of accountability, transparency, and strict adherence to the rule of law, including the rules governing elections, to guarantee respect for the will of the people,” the Ministry statement said.
“Guyana therefore, supports the call for a transparent process of verification of the will of the Venezuelan people as exercised on July 28, 2024. The people of Venezuela deserve nothing less,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry also said.
During the closing press conference of the 47th Caribbean Community (Caricom) Heads of Government meeting in St. Georges, Grenada, President Dr. Irfaan Ali was asked by the Caribbean media about this very statement and he made it clear that he was supporting international calls, as well as calls from the Venezuelan opposition, for the process to be upheld.
“In an election, there is a process. In that process you have what occurs before an election, what occurs on election day, and what occurs after that. And throughout the process, there are laws and systems governing the process,” President Ali said.

“Our statement is factual… every mechanism that is provided for in the electoral system must be adhered to. And if there are calls, and there are calls from the international community and the opposition, for one aspect of that process to be activated, then we support that call because it is part of the electoral system.”

Elections
Millions of Venezuelans turned out in record numbers to vote on Sunday, in what was widely seen as the biggest challenge to Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela’s (PSUV) 17-year grip on power.
This was particularly since the political opposition had united behind former Diplomat and Presidential candidate Edmundo González, who was the stand-in candidate after Opposition Leader María Corina Machado was barred from running.
There had been some optimism that this time, the Venezuelan election would be more transparent than previous ones and there had even been talk of what a transition of power would look like. But the results have left the country in greater turmoil than before.
Maduro has claimed that his party beat González, with more than 5.1 million votes to his rival’s 4.4 million.
His results have also been certified by the CNE. But the opposition has insisted that González prevailed and that the tallies in their possession showed he won 6.2 million votes compared with Maduro’s 2.7 million.
Thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets protesting against Maduro’s declared victory, with statutes of Maduro’s mentor, late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, being toppled in scenes eerily similar to historical events in parts of the middle east.
And despite Maduro’s claims that these protestors are being stirred up by foreign influence, it has been reported that many of these protesters actually come from the sprawling hillside slums long considered strongholds of his own party.

Caricom position
Up to press time on Tuesday, Caricom had not come out with a unified position on the Venezuelan election… a fact that was questioned by a few media outlets during the closing press conference.
According to Caricom Chairman and Grenada Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell, there is no unified position because “elections in Venezuelan are a domestic matter”. The Prime Minister also shied away from taking a definitive position on calls for a transparent verification process of Venezuelan votes.
“It’s not an indication that Caricom is divided. Caricom does not have to have a position. Elections in Venezuela are a domestic matter. Secondly, Venezuela is not a member of Caricom… we’re happy that the people of Venezuela got a chance to exercise their democratic right and engage in elections.”
“There’s no need for Caricom to have a position on this matter… I don’t know if there is a verification process. Elections are held everywhere. Sometimes they’re disputed, sometimes they’re not. Respectfully, it is not Caricom’s position to come out and say that they ought to be verification of any country’s election,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell did, however, acknowledge that individual member states and Heads of Government have been making their own pronouncements on the Venezuelan election. One such member state is St. Vincent and the Grenadines, whose Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, expressed congratulations to Maduro the day after the election. Gonsalves even went on to urge Caricom itself to congratulate Maduro.
“There may be some countries which may wish to wait and see. I don’t know but that certainly will arise sometime today, whether in this morning session or in the caucus this afternoon. But I would like to see Caricom make a statement congratulating Maduro on his re-election to the presidency,” Gonsalves, who played an integral part in brokering the Argyle agreement between Guyana and Venezuela last year, was quoted by Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) as saying.
Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit had meanwhile deferred to the CNE as the competent authority to oversee the election. CNE is headed by Elvis Amoroso, who was once the Vice President of the Constituent National Assembly that was set up as a parallel parliament to Venezuelan’s official one in 2017. He has also represented the PSUV in the Venezuelan National Assembly as a lawmaker.
Meanwhile, St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Phillip Pierre had struck a cautious note in his interview with Caribbean News Agency (CANA), noting that while he cannot make a firm statement, it was his hope that a vote audit is done and reports from independent observers submitted.
Guyana and Venezuela are currently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to determine a final resolution to the ongoing border controversy in which the Bolivarian Republic is seeking to annex more than two-thirds of Guyana’s sovereign territory in a unilateral move that has been widely condemned by the regional and international community.
Both countries have submitted their memorials and counter memorials, with Guyana and Venezuela given until December 9, 2024 and August 11, 2025 respectively, to make a second round of written submissions.