Venezuelan electoral official denounces 'lack of transparency and truthfulness' in Maduro's re-election

MIAMI — A Venezuelan election official decried what he called a “serious lack of transparency and truthfulness” in last month’s election results, chastising authorities who declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner despite strong evidence to the contrary from his opponents and doubts from several foreign governments.

Juan Carlos Delpino is one of five members of the National Electoral Council, or CNE in Spanish, and the only one who showed, before the vote, his willingness to go against the wishes of Maduro's government.

On Monday, he posted a letter on social media detailing several alleged irregularities before and during the July 28 vote. He said polling stations were slow to report results from automated voting machines and that several opposition volunteers had been banned, in violation of electoral rules that ensure the transparent transmission of results to the CNE headquarters.

Delpino said he was informed that the hours-long delay was due to an alleged hack of the CNE platform and that only 58% of the results had been collected. He said he decided, as a form of protest, not to join his fellow rectors in monitoring the vote count from the CNE data center or to attend the midnight press conference in which CNE President Elvis Amoroso, a ruling party loyalist, declared Maduro the winner.

“I deeply regret that the results do not serve the Venezuelan people, that they do not help resolve our differences or promote national unity, but rather that they fuel the doubts of the majority of Venezuelans and the international community,” Delpino wrote.

Delpino, an electoral expert close to one of Venezuela's traditional opposition parties, was appointed to the CNE by the National Assembly controlled by Maduro's allies last year after several predecessors were impeached.

The letter comes as Maduro has repeated his claims that he won reelection by more than a million votes. His government has defied calls from the United States, the European Union and even its left-wing allies in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to release voting results that would support those claims.

Meanwhile, the opposition has published online what appear to be authentic results from 80% of polling machines showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

Last week, Venezuela’s Supreme Court certified the results and said the results posted online by the opposition were falsified. Attorney General Tarek William Saab ordered González to testify this week as part of a criminal investigation into alleged attempts to sow panic in the South American country by disputing the results.

On Sunday, González indicated he had no intention of complying with the order, saying his rights to due process and Venezuela’s constitution were being violated and that the only authority he should answer to was the voters. He reiterated calls for Maduro to release voting records from some 30,000 machines across the country so the results could be independently verified by international experts.

“Venezuela is experiencing moments of uncertainty and unease because of your efforts to thwart the desire for change,” González said, addressing Maduro directly in a video posted on social media. “The publication of the voting records is the guarantee of peace.”

Former diplomat González and his main ally, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, went into hiding after the election as security forces arrested more than 2,000 people and cracked down on demonstrations across the country protesting the results.

The two men called on Venezuelans to take to the streets on Wednesday to commemorate one month since their supposed election victory.

Delpino, in an interview with The New York Times published Monday, said he, too, had gone into hiding.

His letter also highlighted what he called a number of irregular decisions by the CNE, including the lack of meetings before the vote, which made it difficult to establish clear rules on the participation of campaign election workers, international observers and the millions of Venezuelans living abroad.