Yes, I know it’s a kind of sickness to be so horribly fascinated by the machinations of a bunch of pseudo-democrats, but I can’t help myself. I think it’s just the thought that there are a bunch of decent Venezuelans who are quite close to having a real democracy, if they could just grasp it.
Firstly, Chávez’ anointed son Nicolás Maduro “won”, to the extent that the result has been counted correctly, no “adjustments” made, no irregularities at the count, and that media coverage was a level playing field (which it never is in Venezuela, where state TV is a propaganda channel).
But he won by a much smaller margin than expected (a mere 1.8% of the vote).
Capriles demanded a recount, a pretty reasonable request on that kind of margin. Maduro accepted the recount on Monday, then had changed his mind by today, when he realised he might just lose, and rejected it.
Capriles has organised protests against the refusal to recount. Maduro has duly banned them.
Yes, a huge respect for democracy all round.
Finally, today I saw a Venezuelan correspondent tweeted a link to a video of Maduro saying on live TV on Monday that he would accept a recount (hat-tip: @DavidButler100)
Funnily enough, you can’t see that video any more, it’s been taken down. I wonder why that would be…
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There has been a randomly selected 54% audit of the machine results compared to the paper receipts. No discrepancies have been found. Auditing the remaining 46% is not going to overturn the 270k margin.
Capriles has not actually requested the CNE conduct a "recount" or full audit.
Even Francisco Toro doesn't think there was fraud.
I hadn't realised you got paid to write this rubbish. I think I shall be deleting your comments from now on.
No one is paying me for commenting here. Your explanation on why you think that I do would be an interesting read. All three point I made are correct at the time I posted. Capriles has now put in his request for a recount.