A Victory for Venezuela's Opposition, but Presidency Still Out of Reach
A Victory for Venezuela's Opposition, but Presidency Still Out of Reach
AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini comments on Nicolás Maduro’s presidential sworn in ceremony in the midst of political turmoil over voting disputes in Venezuela.
As Nicolás Maduro stood before Venezuela's National Assembly to be sworn in as president today, thousands of opposition supporters celebrated, salsa music blaring throughout the capital, in hopes that Mr. Maduro could legally be unseated.
In a surprise concession, Venezuela's Electoral Council (CNE) said last night that it will scrutinize an additional 46 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, fueling opposition hopes that candidate Henrique Capriles, who lost the presidency by less than 2 percent, still has a shot.
"We are where we want to be," Mr. Capriles said after the late Thursday night announcement. "I think I will have the universe of voters needed to get where I want to be."
"If they want to audit the remaining 46 percent, no problem, let's do it," said Jorge Rodríguez, Maduro's campaign manager. Mr. Rodríguez added that he would post the digitized results from 39,800 polling stations on the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) website in order "disprove the lies" of the opposition....
"What [the election recount] doesn't do is address the concerns over the pre-election conditions, the patently unfair playing field that existed during the campaign," says Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas in New York City. "Now if the [recount] results are found to be valid, what alternatives are [the opposition] left with?"
While the United States has been reluctant to recognize Maduro as president, other regional organizations, such as Unasur and the OAS, have shown their support for Maduro....
Read the complete article here.
