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As Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro clings to power after last month’s disputed election, the United States, Brazil, and Columbia have called for a fresh election read more
 "Venezuela's Opposition rejects call for fresh election, terms it disrespectful to result")
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado with supporters during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Rejecting calls for fresh election, Venezuelan Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has said fresh voting would be disrespectful to the last month’s vote.
In the last month’s election held amid widespread voter suppression and crackdown by longtime ruler Nicolas Maduro, the Opposition led by Machado claimed victory. Even as the Maduro-controlled election authority declared him as the winner, it did not furnish any paper tallies to rectify the result. The Opposition claimed that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had won the election and the United States recognised him as the real winner.
Even as the much of the international community holds the election as disputed, Maduro has clung onto power and has unleashed a door-to-door hunt for critics. Around 2,000 people have been arrested — hundreds of whom remained unaccounted. The regime forces and armed supporters have also killed at least 24 protestors.
Amid such a crisis, the United States, Brazil, and Columbia had called for fresh election. But Machado said that as the Opposition had already won the last month’s election, another round of voting would be disrespectful to the popular that voters expressed last month.
‘Lack of respect for Venezuelans’
Rejecting calls for fresh election, Machado said to ignore the last month’s result would mean showing “lack of respect for Venezuelans who have given everything”.
Election was held in Venezuela on July 28. While the Maduro-controlled election authority announced himself as the winner with 51.2 per cent of the vote, the Opposition said Gonzales won with 70 per cent of votes against Maduro’s 30 per cent. The Maduro-controlled election authority did not furnish any paper tallies to rectify the figures presented and that’s why the Opposition and much of the international community has held Maduro’s claim of victory as fraudulent.
“The elections took place and Venezuelan society expressed itself in very adverse conditions where there was fraud and we still managed to win,” said Machado, as per AFP.
Even as the vote was marred by widespread voter suppression, violence by regime forces, and systemic efforts to hamper voting, the crackdown by Maduro had been long in the making, denying the Opposition any level-playing field. His regime had barred Machado, the nation’s most popular leader, from contesting the election and that’s why the Opposition converged behind Gonzales. The regime had also slapped criminal cases against Machado’s supporters and put several Opposition leaders in jail ahead of the election.
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English (US) ·