VENEZUELA’S GONZALEZ GOT 67 PER CENT OF VOTE

VENEZUELA’S corrupt incumbent President Nicolas Maduro polled only 30 per cent of the votes in the recent election.

Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia captured 67 per cent of the ballots, research by Washington Post newspaper has uncovered.

The much-respected newspaper reviewed 23,720 tally sheets from 79 per cent of voting machines.

The Post reported: “Even if Maduro won every vote on the remaining 21 per cent, assuming a similar turnout, he would still fall more than 1.5 million votes shy of Gonzalez.”

The newspaper’s conclusion ties in with that of other independent analyses.

The Carter Centre said the election “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic.”

The United States has recognised Gonzalez as the winner and several Latin American countries have disputed Maduro’s claim of having won the poll.

The Venezuelan electoral council, which Maduro controls, insisted he won almost 52 per cent of the vote.

The Post provided a detailed breakdown of its analysis.

The newspaper quoted a political science professor at a Brazilian university as saying that “we are witnessing the largest electoral fraud in the history of Latin America.”

There are growing fears of a fresh exodus of frustrated Venezuelans to nearby countries, including Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.

Already, almost eight million have fled the economic exodus and political repression over which Maduro presides.

T&T’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has hit out against unidentified “outsiders” who, he claimed, would attempt to change the Venezuelan Government by force.

Rowley said: “When the United States, Canada and the European Union decided to change the government in Venezuela by force, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Mexico, Uruguay all took objection because a bad situation was about to get worse.”

He stated: “What we have to be careful with is that we don’t take advice from people whose agenda and interests are not the same as Trinidad and Tobago.”