With recent news of post-election violence in Venezuela, one issue has slightly faded away from the horizon. The reason there is a political crisis in Venezuela at all is because a large segment of the population does not trust in the results that were announced by election officials on Sunday. They want votes to be audited and counted once again, and have been angered by recent declarations from government officials that no such thing will be done.
The push for a full recount of votes is led by Henrique Capriles, the opposition candidate who apparently lost on Sunday by less than 300,000 votes. Capriles justified a recount on Sunday by explaining that a counting of votes conducted by his party’s election witnesses at voting centers across the country suggested that he had won the presidency.
Chávez’s protégé, Nicolas Maduro, initially accepted a recount in a speech delivered on Sunday night in front of thousands of supporters, but inexplicably changed his mind on Monday when he was declared the election’s official winner by the National Electoral Council. Still, the opposition is pushing for a recount, with several protests taking place on Monday and Tuesday, in which people took to the streets in different cities.
Here’s why many people in Venezuela want a full recount:
1. Thousands of irregularities appear to have occurred on election day
Full Article: People Want a Full Recount of Votes in Venezuela – ABC News.