Phony Claims About Inflated Venezuelan Voter Turnout

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)

Venezuela’s electoral process is the world’s best, shaming America’s money-controlled sham process – anti-democratic by design, voters having no say whatever.

Last Sunday, 8,089,320 Venezuelans participated in Constituent Assembly Elections, a constitutionally authorized initiative to revise or rewrite Venezuela’s constitution.

National Electoral Council (CNE) president Tibisay Lucena called the process “extremely positive.” President Nicolas Maduro said “(t)he National Constituent Assembly is born with a great popular legitimacy.”

Indeed so. The number of votes cast exceeded the 7,587,579 he got in his 2013 electoral triumph. It nearly matched the near 8.2 million Chavez received in his 2012 reelection.

International observers called Sunday’s process open, free and fair – like all Venezuelan elections.

US-supported opposition elements falsely claimed 88% of voters abstained – a Big Lie. Media scoundrels put the vote total at less than half the officially certified number, part of their disinformation campaign.

Smartmatic electronic voting technology is used in Venezuela. Without access to CNE tabulations, its CEO Antonio Mugica claimed totals were inflated by at least one million votes – despite no evidence of manipulation.

On Wednesday, Constituent Assembly head Jorge Rodrguez emphatically denied claims of falsified vote totals, calling Sunday’s elections scrupulously fair, transparent and auditable to prove it.

CNE president Lucena said “no basis” exists for Smartmatic’s claim. It’s “responsible for technical services and nothing else.”

“It is an irresponsible assertion based on estimates without any basis in the data that is exclusively managed by the Electoral Authority. But even more serious, Smartmatic participated in all (pre-election) audits.”

“Smartmatic’s allegations represent an unprecedented view of a service-only company” – part of a US-orchestrated campaign to vilify and oust Maduro as Venezuela’s democratically elected president.

Mugica earlier explained it’s “virtually impossible” to manipulate vote totals with his company’s technology.

Voters chose 545 Constituent Assembly members from among 6,120 candidates. On August 4, they’ll be inaugurated. Their mandate is restoring peace, stability and dialogue, along with assuring continuation of Bolivarian social democracy.

On Wednesday, Maduro asked for a ballot recount to be completed before Friday’s Constituent Assembly inauguration.

“I personally asked Jorge Rodriguez to audit 100 percent of the votes and leave no doubts” about the accuracy of the results, he said.

Rodriguez estimates around “two million more people could not make it to polling place(s) despite all their efforts” – because of US-orchestrated street violence.

In spite of it, things went off smoothly. Venezuelans voted to restore peace and calm to the country. Washington and fascist elements it supports want continued violence and regime change.

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