UN Committee Orders Venezuela to Retain Election Vote Tallies

The United Nations’ Human Rights Committee has issued an order to Venezuela, instructing it “to refrain from destroying” the voting tallies from the presidential election held in July. These tallies, which provide a detailed official breakdown of votes from each polling station, are central to the ongoing dispute over the election’s winner. The National Electoral Council (CNE), aligned with the government, declared the incumbent, President Nicolás Maduro, as the victor but failed to supply the voting tallies to support its assertion. In contrast, the opposition, which gathered and published over 80% of the voting tallies with the assistance of accredited election witnesses, contends that these figures demonstrate its candidate, Edmundo González, was the overwhelming winner. The Human Rights Committee, a UN body composed of 18 independent experts, announced it is investigating allegations of electoral fraud. This inquiry follows a complaint filed by a law firm on behalf of a Venezuelan voter. As part of this investigation, the committee mandated that the Venezuelan state preserve the comprehensive voting data from the presidential election on July 28. Significant pressure has been placed on the CNE, which is staffed by government loyalists, to release the voting tallies. However, more than four months after the election, it has not done so, citing an alleged computer hack on election night as the reason for its unprecedented failure to provide the data within 30 days of the election date. Conversely, the opposition promptly uploaded the voting tallies it had collected to a website. Independent observers and media outlets, including the New York Times and CNN, report that those tallies indicate Edmundo González won the election with 67% of the votes, compared to Maduro’s 30%. Nevertheless, Nicolás Maduro has dismissed the tallies published by the opposition as “fraudulent” and maintains that he is the legitimate election winner. He is proceeding with preparations for January 10, when he states he will be sworn in for his third consecutive term in office. This situation has put him at odds with an increasing number of countries, including the United States, Italy, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay, all of which have recognized González as the president-elect of Venezuela. IHR Legal, the international law firm that submitted the complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, described the case as “pioneering” and “historic,” suggesting it could lead to the committee “confirming that Nicolás Maduro is not the president-elect of Venezuela.”