Sunday, December 11, 2005

Chavista witness blasts the CNE, Chavez and democracy The CNE credibility is so low, than even pro-Chavez witnesses to the audit today did not like the procedures followed and are even organizing a protest: Alexis Briceño, a witness for pro-Chavez party Mobare 200 4-F, expressed his mistrust in the audit that the CNE is doing on 1% of the ballot boxes which were counted manually last Sunday. Briceño asked "how can there be an audit here when the boxes were chosen at 1 PM on the 4th. of December. They first picked the boxes and then they did the audit", he said. The officialist witness said the correct thing is to select the boxes once the polls have closed. He also added that you "do a complete audit, box by box, one by one, and that is what we are all asking for" after explaining that they only gave him two boxes to check Circuit 1 that comprises 23 de Enero and Catia. He admitted that he doubts the results in that circuit, because on the exit poll they got that Milky Bravo had a 12% advantage over Desirée Santos Amaral, who was later proclaimed as the winning Deputy. William Lara came out saying the day of the election, about 10 PM that according to official projections Desirée Santos Amaral had 120 thousand votes. How can she have 120 thousand votes when there were 120 thousand voters only? Thus, everyone voted for her? And now there are only sixty thousand. He added: “Go to the barrio and ask if they have ever seen Desiree, they never have". He plans to contest the results. He complained that "the Caudillo (Chavez) of the revolution made his UVE (the twin party) and left us outside of it. It can not be possible that we got rid of Alfaro Ucero to have a caudillo of the revolution. We can not do this, neither vote according to what he imposes us, because now we don’t have representation in the National Assembly. We ourselves are doing the audit, four maybe one or two opposition parties, then, what type of democracy is this, he asked. He said he had information that only Primero Justicia had witnesses in today's audit, but he recognized that he had not personally seen them. He asked all opposition parties to come here to open all of the boxes, not those chosen by the CNE. He invited the oppsoition for a protest next Friday. My only comment is: Alexis! What do you think we have been talking about since the recall vote? 9:19:30 PM    comment []

How the revolution throws money away in silly propaganda And you have to love how the revolution wastes money, rather than using it for the people they claim to love so much, as seen in this picture I took this afternoon in Avenida Solano in Sabana Grande of this poster, paid and sponsored by the Chavista Mayor of Libertador District Freddy Bernal (Top right): "Bush and his puppies. Latin America needs to be respected!" Since neither Bush nor Fox (Who leads a country in Latin America anyway) will drive thru this avenue anytime soon, why doesn't he send them a telegram? (A letter would be cheaper) 7:07:39 PM    comment []

The New York Times on Iraqi elections irregularities Top headline in the NYT online Sunday, December 11th. 2005: Commission Finds Irregularities in Iraqi Voter Registration BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 11 - With just four days to go until parliamentary elections, the Iraqi electoral commission said today that it had found irregularities in voter registration in the volatile northern oil city of Kirkuk. They must be kidding me, no? Irregularities in ONE city? I can give them a whole country. Maybe even a few hundred cities, or a few hundred thousand names. How about the Maisanta software? Except that Quico says he knows him, I would be starting to believe that NTT reporter Forero does not exist, has never been to Venezuela and has no clue about our elections. Is this the same paper that said five days ago that the Venezuelan election was clean and never reported on the OAS and EU observers sharp criticism of the vote? 6:49:07 PM    comment []