[NYTr] Venez Electoral Council Dispels Myths Surrounding Referendum Vote
 
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 21:57:26 -0600 (CST)

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Venezuelanalysis - Dec 6, 2007
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2968

Venezuela's Electoral Council Dispels Myths Surrounding Referendum

by Chris Carlson

MC)rida, December 6, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com) - One of the five
directors of Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), Vicente
Diaz, held a press conference on Tuesday to dispel any myths
surrounding Sunday's electoral results. Diaz called the elections a
"triumph of democracy" that demonstrated the country's willingness to
peacefully resolve political conflicts.

The CNE director held the press conference to clear up doubts about the
electoral results of Sunday's referendum. Rumors and accusations had
emerged from some opposition leaders after the electoral body was slow
in releasing the official results of the election Sunday night. The
opposition accused the CNE of having changed the results to give them a
smaller victory.

But Diaz, considered to be sympathetic to the opposition, assured that
these accusations are false and invited everyone to visit the CNE web
page to see the official results broken down by state, municipality,
voting center, and even voting booth. Diaz assured that the official
results match the results obtained by the public audit of the paper
ballots conducted Sunday night.

"There is no way that the results could be any different from what the
CNE announced," said Diaz. "The votes were registered without any
problems all over the country and there were witnesses in all the
voting centers."

Diaz explained that the delay in releasing results was due to an
agreement between the two political campaigns to wait until 90 percent
of the votes were tallied before announcing the results, and that this
was not possible due to some problems in transmitting the results to
the CNE headquarters. Results were finally announced with only 87
percent of the votes tallied, he explained.

"Don't let them lie to you," he said. "Don't believe the myths and
stories that have caused so much damage to the democratic route in
Venezuela."

Diaz also refuted the claim that the delay was due to a refusal to
accept the results on the part of President Hugo Chavez, assuring that
witnesses from both sides were always present during the tallying of
the votes, and understood the reason for the delay.

The CNE director called Sunday's referendum a "triumph of democracy"
and assured that the event disproves some common myths about Venezuelan
politics. According to Diaz, the elections show that President Hugo
Chavez is not a dictator, that the opposition is not violent, and that
the country can resolve its problems through democratic elections.

"I think three myths were dispelled," said Diaz. "The first is that the
President is a dictator, but this was dispelled when he accepted the
results. The second myth that was dispelled is that the opposition
sectors are coup-leaders, and that they have a plan for violence. And
the third myth that was dispelled is that conflicts cannot be resolved
by voting."

Diaz went on to assure that the election demonstrates that the "the
people of Venezuela are not going to accept violence to solve their
conflicts," and congratulated both sides for their civil behavior.

President Chavez, however, responded to the comments in a televised
speech on Wednesday, disagreeing with Diaz' conclusions. Chavez said
that he had no reason to thank the CNE director for assuring he is not
a dictator, and stated that the opposition did indeed have plans for
violence in case they lost the election.

"I am sure that if the results had favored us, with such a small margin
like that, they already had their destabilization plan ready, or at
least the radical sectors of the opposition," assured Chavez.

President Chavez explained that security forces were in action during
the day Sunday due to various strange actions among opposition leaders,
including opposition governor Manuel Rosales. Chavez revealed that he
had given orders to the military in case any destabilization plan was
carried out, and that they were ready to take any television channel
that aided in the plan off the air.

"Don't think that we aren't ready to confront your violent plans
whenever they present themselves," he said.

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