European Union releases final electoral observation report on Venezuela
By Aleksander Boyd
London 15.03.06 | The European Union finally released its electoral observation mission report. It is a PC document that, as all things nowadays, avoids appropriate descriptive language to define what truly goes on electorally in Venezuela. There's a shocking revelation in that report, that I had already heard from Jorge Rodriguez back in October 2005, which is that all operating software used in electoral processes was purchased by the National Electoral Council (CNE) that, get this, for commercial purposes is not accesible to public inspections and has not been audited by independent third parties. In the original:
Aunque el código fuente es propiedad del CNE, por razones comerciales no es accesible a inspecciones públicas y no ha habido una tercera parte independiente que haya realizado una auditoría de alguna sección del sistema de voto electrónico.
I remember Jorge Rodriguez saying in London that beginning 2006 all electoral processes in Venezuela would be completely independent from a technological point of view. Now we learn that due to "commercial reasons" no one will be able to conduct proper audits on the software used to operate the Smartmatic e-voting machines. And then some still think that elections, under the present circumstances, are the way to solve the deep polarization of Venezuela.
European observers however have admitted (page 29) the existence of what I denounced in this website, as the reason of the opposition's withdrawal en masse from the legislative race of December 4 2005, read the audit conducted on November 23 in Fila de Mariches, whereby Leopoldo Gonzalez demonstrated that the electronic voting process was flawed. I guess chavista armchair revolutionaries, who called me a liar, will have to eat their words now.
Sumate did not fared well with the Europeans. One has to guess that now they can add to the list of "organizations that despise Venezuelan democracy" representatives of the European Union's electoral observation mission.
But the icing on the cake has to be the affirmation by European observers that the publication and use of the Tascon List and Maisanta database did not breach referenda regulations. Well here's a question for the bunch of racist European electoral experts: do you care to provide a current provision, article, decree, norm or regulation that allows a representative of the ruling party following Executive's orders to make publicly available a database contentive of the political tendencies of the entire Venezuelan electorate?
send this article to a friend >>