DISINFO: “Democratic concern” about Venezuela’s election results is a strategy of political interference
SUMMARY
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council confirmed that with over 80% of the votes counted, the irreversible trend gave the victory to Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela is a country with the biggest oil reserves in the world, and has been a regional beacon of multilateralism and people’s empowerment. One has not seen any exigence to present the minutes of the election in the European Parliament, or the UK or France. So it can be concluded that this spectacle of “democratic concern” is nothing but a strategy of political interference with very specific goals.
RESPONSE
This is a pro-Kremlin disinformation attempt to distract from the unclear nature of elections in Venezuela by questioning the intentions of those voicing concern or criticism. In this case, these allegations are demonstrably unsubstantiated.
Doubts about electoral results in Venezuela are not part of any foreign strategy for political interference, but are the result of undemocratic practices by Nicolás Maduro’s government ahead of and during the election. These practices include the banning of popular candidates, the arbitrary detention of key opposition figures, and the rejection of some international observers.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council is not an independent body, and its members are politically appointed by the government. As a result, allegations about a Maduro victory were immediately met with scepticism, especially since no evidence was provided to back these claims. In contrast, the opposition has collected a significant proportion of vote tallies, whose examination by independent media and data analysts show that opposition candidate Edmundo González was almost certainly the real winner of the election.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that protests in Venezuela are definitely financed by Washington, that elections in Venezuela were free and fair, that the US is making plans for the ‘balkanization’ and fragmentation of Venezuela, or that former Colombian ambassador confessed Washington was involved in destabilisation of Venezuela and Haiti.