Venezuelan Opposition Boycott Governor’s Swearing In After Fraudulent Election

Members of the Venezuelan opposition boycotted a governor’s swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday amid widespread allegations of voter fraud in Sunday’s regional elections.

The governors protested that the event was held before the recently convened “national constituents assembly,” a fraudulent pro-government lawmaking body that has effectively rendered Venezuela a dictatorship.

“The governors-elect will only be sworn in as established in the constitution and the laws of the Republic,” the Democratic Unity Coalition said in a statement.

Polls in the run-up to Sunday’s election gave the opposing Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) a commanding lead over dictator Nicolás Maduro’s governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), although electoral authorities claimed that Maduro’s socialist party won 17 of the country’s 24 governorships.

While the opposition coalition claimed they did not recognize the “fictional” results, Maduro celebrated it as a “victory for Chavismo,” claiming that Venezuela has “the best electoral system in the world.”

There had been disunity within the opposition ranks in the run-up to the election over whether to participate, with figures such as Vente Venezuela leader Maria Corina Machado and former mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma warning that participation would only legitimize the government’s position. Ledezma served as mayor until Maduro sent secret police into his office, dragged him out, and put him in prison.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders such as the former governor of Miranda Henrique Capriles Radonski and wife of Popular Will party leader and prisoner of conscience Leopoldo López, Lilian Tintori, said that they would seek to challenge the regime through the ballot box. However, their attempts appear to have failed as the regime continues to consolidate its authority.

In a statement on Monday, the State Department said that the “voice of the Venezuelan people was not heard” in Sunday’s election:

Our previously stated concerns were unfortunately realized: lack of independent, credible international observers; lack of technical audit for the National Electoral Council’s (CNE) tabulation; last minute changes to polling station locations without public notice; manipulation of ballot layouts; and limited availability of voting machines in opposition neighborhoods.

In July, the Maduro regime was also found to have doctored the results of a poll to elect members of their illegal legislature. According to a post-election report by the election technologies company Smartmatic, turnout figures in Venezuela’s constituent assembly election on Sunday were inflated by at least one million votes.

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