Election authority says Maduro, who faced a stiff test from a unified opposition, secured 51 percent of the vote.
  • memfree@lemmy.ml
    119·
    5 months ago

    Maybe. APnews says:

    Authorities delayed releasing the results from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, promising only to do so in the “coming hours,” hampering attempts to verify the results.

    After finally claiming to have won, Maduro accused unidentified foreign enemies of trying to hack the voting system.

    Per bbc:

    • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among those expressing his scepticism after the result was announced by the National Electoral Council, a body which is dominated by government loyalists.

    • The UK Foreign Office also expressed concern over the results

    • The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, also said he found the result “hard to believe”.

    • Uruguay’s president said of the Maduro government: “They were going to ‘win’ regardless of the actual results.”

    • In a congratulatory message, President Vladimir Putin told Mr Maduro: “Remember, you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil.”

    That said, I didn’t really want Maria Machado “—derided by the Chavista leadership for her pro-market views and her upper-class background“ — to lead a puppet government after getting kicked off the ballot.

    • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
      11·
      5 months ago

      The US and UK have been trying to coup the Venezuelan government for years; their opinions have zero credibility here. But Gabriel Boric seems to be a reasonably sensible and neutral leader, so I think his reading should be given some consideration.

      • memfree@lemmy.ml
        86·
        5 months ago

        I’m anticipating strife and reporting from additional sources. This could get ugly and people should be aware of it.

        Note that al-jazeera itself reported this in the article you linked:

        “Everything we have seen so far indicates the results of the government are just produced,” Phil Gunson, International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Venezuela, told Al Jazeera. He claimed the tallies announced by the government-controlled electoral authority did not correspond to the votes cast.

        “The result that the opposition claims is the correct one … corresponds very closely to what opinion polls have been saying for the last several months,” Gunson said. “All the partial results we have seen so far indicate the opposition got something like three-fifths of the vote.”

          • memfree@lemmy.ml
            32·
            5 months ago

            Decades ago, before the internet, when your local radio stations and newspapers paid for service to a special machine that constantly churned out stories from stringers and main branches, there was a saying that I no longer remember but went something like, “Associated Press gets the story first; United Press gets it right.”

            We never doubted that AP/UP/Reu/(etc.) were feeding most the news. The sources were right there in print.

            It is good to remind people that while there are an endless number of websites, most news still comes from a handful of sources. I will even agree that our sources are all biased.

            That said there are some stories where bias should be expected; where there aren’t really two sides. Example: “Locals outraged by villian’s kicking puppies!” Good reporting might include the reasoning, but the public is not going to side with the puppy-kicker. Surely there was a better way to handle the situation before it got to that.

            The public does not side with Hitler, either. Personally, I am thankful that the larger public has been ‘brainwashed’ into thinking Hitler was ‘bad’. It saddens me that there are Nazis (or neo-Nazis) in countries that fought to end that vile cause. The citizenry should know better. More than that, the citizenry should know that all autocrats are bad. Any benevolent dictator is still mortal and will cede the position to someone else, and it won’t be long before the ‘someone else’ is not benevolent.

            So: thank you for posting the link reminding everyone to be critical of all news sources, but also remember that some things are fairly reported. Sometimes a point of view is valid. Sometimes there is an actual solid truth that is being told. Yes, sometimes that truth is getting sensationalized, but that doesn’t it make it less true.

            For this particular case, I will re-iterate that I am worried about potential strife. If my family was living in Venezuela, I would want a stable and well funded government without corruption and without dictatorship. I don’t think the people had that as a ballot option, and I don’t trust any of the players. I do miss Chavez, though. The U.S. gave him a raw deal.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
          1314·
          5 months ago

          I just love when someone doesn’t understand that APnews regularly spreads propaganda. Amazing to me that westies think that propaganda is only something that happens in outside the west. 😂

          • memfree@lemmy.ml
            78·
            5 months ago

            I just love it when someone posts propaganda and then goes into their own thread attempting to discredit everyone else as propaganda.

              • Em Adespoton
                75·
                5 months ago

                I really appreciate all the work you do surfacing fresh takes on important global news. It’s a really valuable service to the community, and for that you have my thanks.

                I’m also getting tired of the hard propaganda spin you add to the comments, presumably to counter the western propaganda you see responding to your posts.

                I’d prefer to see the news without the verbal combat and assumptions that others are deluded or have an agenda.

                But it’s your choice. I just may end up spending more time fact checking your statements in the future; it’s a shame to have to do so.

                • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
                  114·
                  5 months ago

                  In general, I would encourage you not to take things at face value and actually spend some time learning about topics like this. You shouldn’t take my word for things, but this is obvious to you because what I say often goes against your existing beliefs. It’s even more important to fact check things that align with your biases. The kind of misinformation that’s the most effective is the kind that feeds on what you’re already primed to believe.

                  edit: quite telling how people start downvoting comments that encourage them to question their conditioning 🤡