During his visit to Panamá on Wednesday, Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia presented the voting tallies from the disputed July 28, 2024 election to Javier Martínez-Acha, Panama’s Foreign Affairs Minister.
These voting tallies, called “actas”, demonstrate González Urrutia’s victory in the presidential election with 67% of the vote will now be under the custody of the Panamanian government.
The day of the July election, the opposition organized thousands of poll watchers in grassroots groups called “comanditos” and they were able to gather over 85% of precinct-level tally sheets. The total votes for each presidential candidate are recorded in these receipt-like documents printed by every voting machine in the country.
The administration-allied National Electoral Council (CNE) claims that incumbent President Nicolás Maduro won re-election with 51.95% of the vote. To this day, they have failed to provide any detailed precinct-level results.
“These “actas” are my true tri-colored flag, given to me by the people,” González Urrutia said while presenting the documents at the Atalpa convention center in Panamá City.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado said on X that “the ‘actas’ of truth, which express the popular sovereignty and the decision of the Venezuelan people for change, have arrived in Panamá.”
Machado, who has mostly been in hiding since August 28, expressed that this established an “indelible historical bond” between the people of Panamá and Venezuela.
The delivery of the voting tallies was also recorded in a document signed by González Urrutia and Martínez-Acha, who signed on behalf of Panamanian President Jose Raúl Mulino.
The document stated: “The official ‘actas’ received today by the government of Panamá for safekeeping not only embody the testimony of the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people, who through their popular vote evidenced and ratified their firm determination to live in freedom and democracy. They also reflect the extraordinary degree of citizen organization required to overcome all the arbitrariness imposed by a tyrannical regime that always sought to adulterate the elections.”
González Urrutia embarked on an international tour in the run up to January 10, the day which according to the Venezuelan Constitution a new elected president must take office.
The retired diplomat fled into exile in Spain in September after a judge issued an arrest warrant following the July election.
His tour began in Argentina on January 4, where he was recieved by Argentinian President Javier Millei at the house of government, the Casa Rosada.
González Urrutia also met with Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou and on Monday, he met with President Joe Biden in Washington. This morning, he arrived at his last stop in the Dominican Republic.
González Urrutia reportedly plans to leave the Dominican Republic to return to Venezuela and assume the presidency on January 10, despite the Maduro regime announcing a USD $100,000 reward for his capture. In the past few days, “Wanted” posters with González Urrutia’s face started being plastered on screens and billboards in Caracas and in the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, located in the capital’s outskirts.
Nine former Latin American and Spanish presidents are set to accompany the president-elect in his return to Venezuela.
The post Venezuela’s voting tallies showing opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia’s victory to be safeguarded in Panamá appeared first on Latin America Reports.
