I have seen reports on blogs about people being paid to vote no.
vcrisis.com
caracaschronicles.blogspot.com
It can't be. Jimmy Carter endorsed the results.
Jimmy Carter just certified a fraudulent election.
Way to go, Jimmy.
If it were, the Bush Administration has an option. They can refuse to recognize the government as legitimate, and make it necessarily an issue in the campaign.
Why do I suspect Rove would be - a'scared?
Now which political party does THAT remind us of, children?
bump
The United States has declined to join international monitors in backing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's apparent victory in a weekend recall election.
The US has also called for a prompt, thorough and transparent probe into the opposition claims of fraud.
While "noting" and praising the work of observers from former US president Jimmy Carter's Carter Centre and the Organisation of American States (OAS), the US State Department said Washington was not yet ready to endorse their finding that Mr Chavez had prevailed in Sunday's vote.
"We note the OAS and Carter Centre announcement that their quick count was consistent with the National Electoral Council's preliminary results," Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said.
"We also note their offer to work with the opposition to conduct a full audit of the results and to examine any concerns that have arisen," he said.
"We encourage the National Electoral Council to allow a transparent audit to address any concerns and assure Venezuelan citizens that the referendum was free and fair," he said.
He added: "I don't have anything at this point that I can point to that would talk about a broader pattern or problem of abuse."
Mr Casey had earlier congratulated the Venezuelan people for the "relatively calm, relatively peaceful" polls, but said it was far too early to make "final judgments" on the referendum.
Earlier in Caracas, Mr Carter and the OAS backed official results showing that Mr Chavez had won with 58 per cent of the vote, despite Opposition allegations that the referendum had been marred by massive fraud and irregularities.
Mr Carter urged the opposition to recognise the leftist president's referendum victory.
The opposition, which had sought to revoke Mr Chavez's mandate and cut short his term by two years, maintains that the recall won the support of 59 per cent of voters.
Opposition spokesman Henry Ramos Allup claimed Mr Chavez got only 40 per cent, with 59 per cent of ballots supporting the call for his mandate to be revoked two years before it concludes.
--AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1178806.htm