MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Guterres urges Venezuelan authorities to be transparent regarding elections results

The UN Secretary-General also hoped things would be resolved peacefully

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres urged the Venezuelan Government of President Nicolás Maduro to show “full transparency” regarding the outcome of Sunday's elections and “publish in due time the results and the breakdown by polling stations.”

Opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and disenfranchised Vente Venezuela leader María Corina Machado insisted Monday that they had the minutes proving that the National Electoral Council (CNE) had been mistaken when announcing that Maduro had been reelected with 51.2% of the vote (5,150,092) against Gonzále Urrutia's 44.2% (4,445,978).

Guterres said he hoped that these disputes “will be resolved peacefully” and urged local authorities to “publish in due time the results and the breakdown by polling stations.”

The UN Secretary-General also said he would only “take note of the announcement” of the CNE, in addition to “the concerns of some political actors and members of the international community” who were unwilling to recognize these results.

Caracas was severing diplomatic ties with several countries that adopted such a stance. In addition, the Organization of American States (OAS) is expected to debate the Venezuelan crisis shortly.

Guterres also urged electoral authorities in Venezuela to “carry out their work independently and without interference” to “guarantee the free expression of the will” of the people but asked “all Venezuelan political leaders and their followers” to take things calmly.

As he made these remarks, protests erupted in the South American country. Four statues of the late Bolivarian leader Hugo Chávez Frías were torn down. A head of one of those artworks was tied to a motorcycle and paraded as a sign of victory over the Maduro regime.

Exiled opposition leader Leopoldo López, who was accused of orchestrating a cyberattack against the CNE's data transmission system, said from Spain that Sunday's elections were a “fraud and all Venezuela knows it.”