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August 1st, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Members of Venezuela’s Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition and other civil society leaders cry foul, challenging the outcome of the Constituent Assembly election on July 30 as a bold-faced lie or fraud. Others question the vote due to lack of transparency, oversight and other procedural measures.
Venezuela’s Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition including lawmakers from the “suspended” National Assembly and a cohort of civil society organizations question and challenge the PSUV’s and President Nicolas Maduro’s claim that 8 million Venezuelans – with a voter turnout of 41.5 percent – had participated in the elections of the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly will be tasked with drafting a constitution to replace the 1999 Constitution adopted under the late Hugo Chavez.
The Constituent Assembly has also been authorized to “replace and substitute the National Assembly”. The National Assembly (parliament) was suspended by the Supreme Court earlier this year, with the Court claiming that the legislative branch of government was “in contempt”. The Supreme Court then usurped the functions of the legislative branch. The MUD hold an absolute majority in the suspended National Assembly.
Contrary to the PSUV administrations and the Central Electoral Commission’s claims the MUD estimates that only 2.5 million ballots were actually cast on Sunday, while investment bank Torino Capital said its exit polls put the number around 3.6 million. Independent journalists reported about a large number of virtually empty polling stations, suggesting that many followed the MUD’s, Workers’ Confederation’s and others’ call to boycott the elections.
MUD coalition lawmaker Angel Alvarado commented to reporters on the alleged election outcome in one of Caracas’ notorious slums saying “It’s a bold-faced lie. I spent all day in Petare observing. This number is impossible, it’s a total fraud.” May others made similar observations and statements.
Attorney General Ortega – Being outspoken and upholding the Constitution now criminal?
Venezuela’s dissident Attorney General Luisa Ortega, a former PSUV and Maduro supporter who broke with the administration over its “erosion of democracy”, the “usurpation of power and an attempted constitutional coup” also doubted that the outcome of the election was correct, or that the election in itself was legal. Ortega earlier described the Constituent Assembly as non-representative and corporatist.
Ortega earlier filed criminal charges against several Supreme Court Justices but was rejected. The Justices, who found themselves innocent on charges of crimes against the republic, then slammed a travel ban and asset freeze on Ortega and limited the powers of the prosecutor’s office to only being able to raise charges with the approval from a sitting judge.
Independent journalists and observers questioned the validity and outcome of the elections due to a number of serious flaws. Among the most serious observed flaws was the lack of indelible ink to identify voters who already had cast ballots, the fact that voters were allowed to use any polling station of their choice, and the probability that many voters could indeed have cast more than one vote at different polling stations.
Regardless what the outcome or alleged outcome of the vote has been, it is likely that Venezuela will continue heading toward a crisis, and a potentially very violent crisis and a protracted standoff between the PSUV and PSUV-allied organizations, and the MUD and MUD-allied organizations on the other hand. Considering geographical and demographic factors, Venezuela is, indeed, risking to descend into a civil war.
CH/L – nsnbc 01.08.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/08/01/venezuelas-mud-cries-foul-constituent-assembly-election-results-challenged-as-bold-faced-lie/
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