NEW YORK, WASHINGTON - The United Nations (UN) and the Carter Center have raised serious concerns about the integrity and transparency of Venezuela's 2024 presidential election. In a report issued by UN representatives, the election, which took place on Sunday, July 28, 2024, was noted to have occurred in a predominantly peaceful environment and was logistically well-organized. Despite this, significant issues arose during the result transmission process that have cast a shadow over the election's legitimacy.
According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), voter turnout was 59.97% of registered voters, a significant increase from the 45.74% turnout in the 2018 presidential elections. However, the smooth operation of the election day was marred by an abrupt halt in the electronic transmission of results shortly after the polls closed. The CNE President later attributed this to a "terrorist cyberattack," which reportedly delayed the tabulation process. Despite these claims, the CNE postponed and ultimately canceled three key post-election audits that could have clarified whether external attacks had indeed occurred.
On July 29, 2024, the CNE President announced that President Nicolás Maduro had won the election with 51.2% of the vote, followed by opposition candidate Edmundo González with 44.2%. This announcement was made based on what was claimed to be 80% of the polling stations' results. By August 2, the CNE confirmed Maduro's victory with an increased vote count, stating that 96.97% of the polling station results had been received. However, these results were announced without any supporting infographic materials or the publication of detailed results, as required by the electoral legal framework.
The CNE's lack of transparency extended to the handling of printed result protocols (acts) at the polling station level. While these protocols were designed with robust security features to ensure transparency, reports indicate that opposition party agents were often prevented from obtaining copies. Furthermore, the CNE has not published these protocols, despite assurances that it would.
The U.N. Panel reviewed a small sample of the available result protocols, finding that those examined contained all the necessary security features, suggesting that a key transparency safeguard could be available for any officially published results. However, the Panel noted that the CNE's management of the results did not meet basic transparency and integrity standards essential for credible elections.
The Carter Center has also expressed its concerns, stating that Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic. The Center emphasized that it could not verify or corroborate the results declared by the CNE, and criticized the electoral authority's failure to publish disaggregated results by polling station, calling it a serious breach of electoral principles.
The election took place in an environment where freedoms for political actors, civil society organizations, and the media were significantly restricted. Throughout the process, the CNE demonstrated a clear bias in favor of the incumbent, raising further doubts about the fairness of the election.
With the international community closely watching, the legitimacy of Venezuela's electoral process remains under intense scrutiny, as both the UN and the Carter Center question the validity of the results and the integrity of the overall process.
