Venezuelan Parliament dismisses main member of the National Electoral Council

The National Assembly (AN, parliament) of Venezuela dismissed this Thursday the main member of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Juan Carlos Delpino, currently exiled in Spain.

The dismissal was approved after the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, accused Delpino of the crimes of “treason to the country, association to commit a crime and complicity with foreign powers.”

Jorge Rodríguez requested the Public Ministry opened an investigation against Delpino for alleged “punishable acts” and suggested that his assets be expropriated by the State.

On August 26, Delpino denounced irregularities in the Venezuelan presidential elections and in the proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as president-elect, a process rejected by the opposition and part of the international community.

“The irregularities that occurred during the July 28, 2024 electoral process and the challenges before and after election day resulted in a loss of confidence in the integrity of the process and the announced results,” Delpino said in a statement.

He explained that on election day the process took place with relatively few incidents until five in the afternoon local time, when electoral participation was around 60% and 65%, but “Following the closure of the polling stations, a violation of essential rules and regulations became evident when incidents of removal of opposition witnesses were reported (…) which constituted a direct violation of the principles of equity and the right of voters to have access to the minutes, compromising the legitimacy of the process.”

“According to the protocols, the transmission of the results should have taken place immediately after the closing of the polling stations,” but “it was interrupted and this interruption was justified by an alleged hacking, which caused silence and an inexplicable delay,” he added. .

“It wasn’t until nine at night when they informed me of the alleged piracy, which would have seriously affected the transmission of results, reducing the effective transmission to 58%“, which “prevented the issuance of the first bulletin at the right time and kept the country in an unjustified wait,” he highlighted.

The CNE member said that, given the absence of witnesses, the non-transmission of the QR code to the data centers and the lack of an effective solution to the alleged piracy, he decided not to go up to the totalization room and not attend the announcement. of the first bulletin.

“As rector, the fact that he did not go up to the vote totalization room means that I have no evidence to support the announced results.“, he noted.

Delpino also explained that he rejected the invitation to attend Maduro’s proclamation because he maintained a position of disagreement with the lack of transparency in the process, a decision justified by the responsibility of ensuring that the results reflected the will of the people.

On the other hand, he also expressed his disagreement with the non-timely publication of the results, frame by frame, as usual, within 48 hours, and the failure to comply with other processes that affected trust and generated uncertainty.

Venezuela held presidential elections on July 28, after which the National Electoral Council (CNE) attributed the victory to Maduro with just over 51% of the votes, while the opposition stated that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained almost 70% of the votes. votes.

The Venezuelan opposition and several countries in the international community denounced electoral fraud and demanded that the voting records be presented for independent verification, which the CNE considers unfeasible due to a cyberattack of which it was supposedly subject.

The electoral results were disputed in the streets, with demonstrations repressed by the security forces, with a balance of more than two thousand arrests and more than two dozen deaths.

Opposition wants to punish those responsible for crimes against humanity in Venezuela