Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04CARACAS2616
2004-08-15 21:52:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Caracas
Cable title:  

VENEZUELA: REFERENDUM UPDATE, 6:00 P.M., AUGUST 15

Tags:  PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM VE 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 002616 

SIPDIS


NSC FOR CBARTON
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD
STATE PASS USAID FOR DCHA/OTI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/03/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM VE
SUBJECT: VENEZUELA: REFERENDUM UPDATE, 6:00 P.M., AUGUST 15


Classified By: Abelardo A. Arias, Political Counselor for
Reason 1.4(d)

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 002616

SIPDIS


NSC FOR CBARTON
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD
STATE PASS USAID FOR DCHA/OTI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/03/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM VE
SUBJECT: VENEZUELA: REFERENDUM UPDATE, 6:00 P.M., AUGUST 15


Classified By: Abelardo A. Arias, Political Counselor for
Reason 1.4(d)

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) National Electoral Council (CNE) director Jorge
Rodriguez announced at 1:30 p.m. that polling hours have
officially been extended until 8 p.m.; persons still in line
at the time would be allowed to vote. CNE directors
Francisco Carrasquero and Rodriguez told reporters they
obtained a CD with Carrasquero's voice falsely announcing the
recall of President Hugo Chavez, and asked for an
investigation. (The recording has been aired several times
in the past week on a humorous radio program). Carter Center
representatives briefing Codel Weller reported voting centers
opening late, long delays in voting, and dramatically
different levels of organization at the different voting
centers. The Carter Center expects voting to continue until
4 a.m. August 16, but they also expect initial results to be
announced around 8-9 p.m. to keep tensions from rising. End
Summary.

--------------
Long Delays Cause Extended Hours
--------------


2. (U) National Electoral Council (CNE) director Jorge
Rodriguez announced at 1:30 p.m. that polling hours have
officially been extended until 8 p.m. Persons still in line
at the official closing time would still be allowed to vote.
Citing delays with fingerprint machines, Rodriguez said
voters could vote first and then register their fingerprints.
Rodriguez said the CNE had directed the military to reorient
lines directly to each voting table.

-------------- --------------
CNE Launched Investigation of False Voice Recording
-------------- --------------


3. (U) CNE directors Francisco Carrasquero and Rodriguez told
reporters they had obtained a CD with Carrasquero's voice
falsely announcing the recall of President Hugo Chavez.
According to Carrasquero, the voice recording was to be
played in a national broadcast on all radio and television
(cadena) at 8 p.m. to cause chaos. He announced an immediate
investigation would be launched to uncover the perpetrator/s

and apprehend him/them. The recording, apparently, is the
work of reporter Fausto Malave who has broadcast the same
recording for the past week on a humorous Caracas radio
station program. Causa R deputy Andres Velasquez, speaking
from the opposition headquarters, called the
Carrasquero/Rodriguez accusation "infantile."

--------------
Embassy Officials and CODEL Observe
--------------


4. (C) Emboffs and Codel Weller acting as informal observers
found:

-- most centers opened late (average delay time 1 hour and a
half);

--voter turnout overwhelmed machine capacity leading to 6-8
hour delays in voting and a voting time of 4-10 minute per
voter rather than the one minute lapse foreseen by the CNE;

--many centers received fewer machines (voting and
fingerprint) than they were promised and several machines
were reported damaged;

--fingerprint machine problems were the worst culprits for
additional delays; and

--voters appear to be waiting to vote patiently despite long
delays, but tensions are mounting in the afternoon as delays
become longer.



5. (C) Lack of fingerprint machines or voting table workers
caused delays in opening voting centers. In some locations
in Caracas, National Guard officers drafted the first few
voters in line to work the election tables. The voting
process was slow in all voting centers, but some were better
organized than others. At a voting center with 9 voting
machines in Caracas, only 22 people voted in 10 minutes
around 10:30 am (average 4 minutes per voter). At centers in
Valencia, Maracay, and Caracas, some centers were organized
in lines by cedula number, but still experienced long delays.
In a center in Maracay, Aragua State, a broken voting
machine resulted in voters being turned away and told to
return later. At 2:35 p.m., the machine had not been fixed
and no one at that particular table had voted. In Maracaibo,
Emboffs found fingerprint machines worked sporadically. Some
centers allowed the voting to continue without the
fingerprints while others halted the process until repairs
were made. Various reports from Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia
and Maracay indicated one out of three voting and fingerprint
machines were not delivered or not working per voting center.


--------------
Carter Center Observations
--------------


6. (C) Codel Weller observers met with representatives of the
Carter Center who reported voting centers opening late, long
delays in voting, and dramatically different levels of
organization at the different voting centers. The Carter
Center expects voting to continue until 4 a.m. August 16, but
they also expect initial results to be announced around 8-9
p.m. to keep tensions from rising. Carter Center
calculations indicate 5,000 people are voting per minute
throughout the country, meaning that 4.1 million of the 14
million voters registered will be able to vote in 10 hours.


7. (C) The Carter Center expects the quick count to be a
"long slow count." Voters are being allowed to vote at
machines they are not assigned to and one ballot deposit box
is being used per voting center rather than per machine. For
the Carter Center, this will make the quick count process
very slow as they will have to resort all ballots according
to imprinted codes. The Carter Center representative said
they expect up to 85% turnout.

--------------
The Famous Vote
--------------


8. (U) President Hugo Chavez voted a little after noon in
Caracas in Caracas. He reiterated his pledge to respect
whatever result was presented by the CNE and urged the
opposition to do the same. Vice-President Jose Vicente
Rangel voted shortly after mid-day in Caracas. Rangel said,
"The true heroes are the Venezuelan people who have turned
out in mass and are stoically waiting in long lines to
exercise their right to vote." Rangel said that technical
difficulties should not take precedence over the will of the
people. He said he agreed with temporarily discarding the
use of fingerprint machines if it made the process quicker.
Jailed Baruta mayor Henrique Capriles Radonski voted at the
headquarters of the Intelligence Police in Caracas shortly
before 2 p.m. Other prisoners from the same prison were also
allowed to vote. The president of the Catholic Venezuelan
Conference of Bishops Archbishop Baltazar Porras voted before
noon in the Andean city of Merida. He praised the civic and
peaceful attitude of the Venezuelan voters saying, "The
massive participation generates a greater consensus for a
future of inclusion, brotherhood and unity."

--------------
Violence
--------------


9. (C) A young woman wounded by a National Guard's randomly
fired gunshot in the morning of August 15 at a voting center

in eastern Caracas died on the way to the hospital, according
to press reports. In the same part of town, pro-Chavez gangs
later reportedly fired shots and tear gas at a voting center.
The Carter Center reported the incident resulted in the
closing of the voting center where some 12,000 people were to
vote.

--------------
Coordinadora Democratica Outlook
--------------


10. (C) Coordinadora Democratica representatives told PolOff
that about four million voters had voted as of 4:00 p.m.
Exit polls conducted by the Coordinadora in various states
showed the opposition leading by wide margins in the Zulia,
Caracas, and Miranda. Despite their projected lead,
Coordinadora representatives worried that the number of
voters would be insufficient to guarantee the threshold of
3.7 million and intended to ask the CNE to extend voting
hours to 11:00 p.m. Coordinadora representatives were
working to bring water and food to those in line, some of
whom had been waiting for more than ten hours. Electoral
chief Amado Dounia said seven people had been detained around
Venezuela for conducting exit polls, though he was not sure
whether the people continued in custody.

-------------- --------------
Coordinadora Democratica Outlines Possibilities for Fraud
-------------- --------------


11. (C) An opposition advisor gave Carter Center and
Organization of American States (OAS) observers an August 14
outline of existing and possible irregularities in the
referendum process related to actions taken by the National
Electoral Council (CNE) to manipulate the vote. According to
the opposition, there are five main problems in the process:
1) the permanent electoral registry, 2) the fingerprinting
machines, 3) the administration of electoral bodies, 4)
last-minute decisions by the CNE, and 5) Plan Republica.


12. (C) The opposition faults the CNE for closing the
national registry July 10, which was not 60 days before the
electoral event as called for in the Organic Electoral Law,
and for not publishing the registry in a timely manner. The
opposition also criticizes the CNE for irregularities in the
assignment of voting centers for various individuals and for
leaving some voters off the registry altogether. As for the
fingerprinting machines, the opposition notes that there is
no oversight of the technology of the machines, and they
could easily produce "false matches" to disenfranchise
potential voters. The opposition continues to question the
secrecy of the vote with the fingerprinting machines and also
notes that the Organic Electoral Law only allows for the use
of a Venezuelan identification card (la cedula) to identify a
voter.


13. (C) In addition to the government's control over the CNE,
pro-government entities control everything from the regional
CNE offices to the electoral tables. Last minute decisions
by the CNE - regarding additional tables, manual voting
cards, and additional "blank" voting books for military
personnel - could also affect the vote in favor of the
government. Finally, the opposition claims that under the
current Plan Republica, the CNE has given military personnel
functions that should normally fall to civilian
administrators.
Shapiro


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2004CARACA02616 - CONFIDENTIAL