Biden, Panamanian leader address 'shared concerns' over Venezuela's election

WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden and Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino discussed their "shared concerns" Wednesday over Venezuela's election last month amid ongoing political tumult.

The two leaders "discussed their shared concerns about the serious flaws that accompanied the vote-counting process following Venezuela’s July 28 election," the White House said in a readout of the call.

"President Biden thanked President Mulino for his effort to advance democracy in both Panama and the hemisphere, including Panama’s efforts to mobilize regional support to restore democratic norms in Venezuela and condemn political repression," it added.

The call was abnormally posted on the president's daily schedule. Most bilateral calls made by the president are not usually added to the daily guidance given to reporters the night prior.

A panel of UN experts said Tuesday that Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) "fell short of the basic transparency and integrity measures that are essential to holding credible elections."

The four-member team of experts, dispatched by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, spent over a month in the capital Caracas as one of the few independent observers invited by President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

The experts said in their interim report that the result management process "did not follow national legal and regulatory provisions, and all stipulated deadlines were missed.”

"In the experience of the panel, the announcement of an election outcome without the publication of its details or the release of tabulated results to candidates has no precedent in contemporary democratic elections. This had a negative impact on confidence in the outcome announced by the CNE among a large part of the Venezuelan electorate," they added.

The experts said they reviewed a sample of the documents that are currently in the public domain, including those posted online by the opposition and that are reported to be results protocols from various polling stations.

"All of those reviewed exhibit all the security features of the original result protocols. This suggests that a key transparency safeguard may be available, as intended, with respect to any officially released results," they said.

However, the panel added that they "did not set out to ascertain or review the vote totals.”

Venezuela's elections authority announced July 29 that Maduro had secured a third term in office with 51.2% of the vote -- a result rejected by the opposition, which maintains the election results are mired in fraud.

The opposition has called for national demonstrations to take place on Aug. 17 as Maduro pledges to deal with protesters with an "iron fist.”