EU won’t recognize Venezuelan election results until it receives protocols - Borrell
Photo: EU diplomat Josep Borrell (Getty Images)
The European Union cannot recognize the results of the elections in Venezuela until all votes are counted and protocols are provided, according to EU diplomat Josep Borrell.
Venezuela's electoral commission announced the results based on 80% of the ballots counted, while the Venezuelan opposition published completely different results.
“That is an additional reason for not recognising the results until they will be fully and independently verified,” Borrell says.
He adds that the EU will decide on possible further steps only after the full results are known.
Elections in Venezuela
Venezuela's electoral commission announced that President Nicolás Maduro received 51% of the vote in Sunday's election, allowing him to continue his socialist rule. However, opinion polls showed that the opposition could be the winner.
On Tuesday, protests took place in Venezuela, where demonstrators demanded that Maduro concede defeat. The chief international observer said that the elections did not meet democratic standards.
In response to the protests, the government called them a coup attempt. The Carter Center, which monitored the election, said the vote did not meet international standards of fairness.
Read more about the elections in Venezuela and the mass protests in the country in RBC-Ukraine's report.
