After US, Japan raises doubts over presidential election result in Venezuela

Tokyo, July 30 (IANS) Japan on Tuesday called for making public all information necessary to verify the credibility of the voting results in Venezuela, citing that “doubts have been raised both domestically and internationally” about the transparency of the entire election process.Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Monday that Nicolas Maduro has won the presidential election for the third time and will govern the country from 2025 to 2031.”Doubts have been raised both domestically and internationally about the transparency of the election process, including the counting of votes,” Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.”Japan calls for all information necessary to verify the credibility of the voting results to be made public and for the transparency of the presidential election process to be ensured, so that the will of all Venezuelans who voted is respected,” it added.Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced preliminary results showing that with 80 per cent of votes counted, President Maduro received approximately 5.15 million votes, while unified opposition candidate Gonzalez received approximately 4.44 million votes.”According to local reports, issues have been pointed out, such as opposition witnesses not being allowed access to the CNE headquarters during the vote count, and the opposition only being shown partial certificates showing the voting results on each voting machine, raising doubts about the transparency of the electoral process and the election results,” stated the Japanese Foreign Ministry.Several countries, including the United States, have also raised “serious concerns” about Maduro winning the presidential election once again.”We’ve seen the announcement just a short while ago by the Venezuelan electoral commission. We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tokyo on Monday.”It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes. The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly,” he added.–IANSas/arm