Urrutia and Machado also welcomed the request for “impartial and independent” verification of the election results, in which Nicolás Maduro was re-elected for a third term, according to the electoral body.
González Urrutia, who leads the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD, the main opposition force, published in X a message of appreciation for the declaration signed today in the Dominican Republic, in which the group of 22 countries and the EU, including Portugal, warn that “any delay” in this verification puts into question the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
In the document, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Italy, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United Kingdom, Suriname, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and the EU make “a strong appeal for common sense and sanity in Venezuela”.
González Urrutia considers the appeal “vital” “at this critical and essential moment to achieve an inclusive solution that restores peace and democracy in Venezuela.”
For her part, former Venezuelan Assembly member María Corina Machado described the declaration as “historic” and called for respect for “democratic principles, as well as the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Venezuelans.”
The statement by the 22 countries and the EU was released in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, by Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez, and stresses that “any delay” in this verification, “preferably by an international entity to guarantee respect for the will of the Venezuelan people expressed at the polls”, jeopardizes the officially published results.
Venezuela held presidential elections on July 28, after which the National Electoral Council (CNE) attributed the victory to Maduro with just over 51% of the votes, while the opposition claims that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained almost 70% of the votes.
The Venezuelan opposition and several countries in the international community have denounced electoral fraud and demanded that the voting records be presented for independent verification, which the CNE says is unfeasible due to a “cyberattack” it was allegedly the target of.
The election results have been contested on the streets, with demonstrations repressed by security forces, resulting in around two thousand arrests and more than two dozen fatalities.
Read Also: Portugal among 22 countries calling for “impartial” verification in Venezuela
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2616572/venezuela-oposicao-sauda-apelo-de-22-paises-e-ue-para-publicacao-de-atas
