TOKYO — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has “serious concerns” about the reported outcome of Venezuela’s hotly contested presidential election, which officials say was won by incumbent President Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking in Tokyo on Monday, shortly after the election was announced, Blinken said the United States was concerned that the outcome did not reflect the will or votes of the Venezuelan people. He called on election officials to release the full results transparently and immediately and said the United States and the international community would respond accordingly.
“We saw the announcement made recently by the Venezuelan Electoral Commission,” he said. “We are very concerned that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
“It is critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election authorities immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers, and that they publish the vote tally. The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly,” Blinken said.
In Venezuela, the announcement of Sunday’s election results was delayed for several hours and the National Electoral Council, controlled by Maduro loyalists, declared that Maduro had won a majority without releasing polling station results.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was unable to run. But she said after the council’s announcement that opposition candidate Edmundo González’s margin of victory was “overwhelming” based on vote tallies received from campaign officials in about 40% of the country’s polling stations.
