Venezuela | Voting day analysis on-location from the voting centers
Special envoy Yunus Soner, who spent the whole election day at a voting center in Petare, Caracas, shares his analysis of the voters, and their behaviour, as well as the next steps of the electoral body as voting centers are now closed. teleSUR
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00:00And now, to begin our special analysis of the day, we welcome our special envoy, Yunus Soner.
00:06Hello, Yunus, can you hear us? It's a pleasure to have you with us, as always.
00:14Hello, good evening from Caracas, from the neighborhood of Petare.
00:19We are at the center of Petare, right across the José Jesús de Arrocha High School,
00:25where we have been based today.
00:27That was the election center.
00:29And here, the day was very peaceful, very relaxed, very ordered, very peaceful, as I mentioned.
00:40It started very early.
00:42When we arrived here at 5 o'clock, we have seen a huge queue,
00:47with people waiting in line since 2 o'clock or 4 o'clock to cast their votes.
00:52And during the day, the voting continued.
00:56On midday, when the sun was really hot, it deceased a little bit.
01:00And in the afternoon, it took up again somewhat, though not as strong as in the morning.
01:06It was clear that a huge crowd of people was very keen to vote,
01:11and they did not leave it to any time during the day.
01:14But they went to the first hour, when at 6 o'clock, the voting center has opened, and they cast their votes.
01:22Right now, we have here around me some groups celebrating the president of Maduro.
01:30And we see they are singing, they were singing.
01:35Now, we are moving a little bit inwards, as traffic is taking up.
01:46And here you see in the background, fireworks being shot into the air.
01:54Fireworks that indicate more celebration here in Petare.
01:59People were dancing just 5 minutes ago, before this traffic went up.
02:04And here are more fireworks going on.
02:09The whole day was very, very, I must underline this, was very peaceful.
02:16People stood side by side, they cast their votes.
02:20There was no trouble at all.
02:22I have not witnessed any discussion between citizens.
02:26Everyone was very orderly.
02:28They had to wait in the morning.
02:30Once they entered the election center, there was a special waiting place organized with seats,
02:36so they had not to stand on their feet.
02:38They were waiting in line, very organized, and called by line and number, and cast their votes.
02:45So, this was in Petare a very regular, very organized election day, that is now ending up with some celebrations.
02:56Excellent, Yunus.
02:57So, first of all, it's great to hear everything you were saying, that people are out in the streets,
03:02they're celebrating, that this was a calm and good election day, that is always good news to hear.
03:08And also, just before we finish with you, I would like to know what's coming on, what are people expecting,
03:14what are we supposed to expect in the coming hours?
03:21Well, now we just spoke to the technical staff here at the election center.
03:28The machines have been audited, so the data is being transferred.
03:33Now, what we have to expect is the National Electoral Council.
03:38The data is being transferred there, it's being collected there nationwide.
03:43All election centers are transferring the results of each voting center.
03:48Each voting center has one printout of each voting table,
03:53and this is a printout, a paper printout, that stays in the center, that does not leave the center.
03:59That's important.
04:00If anyone runs around with a paper, that's illegal.
04:04And the digital version is being transferred to the National Electoral Center,
04:09that gathers the data, and that will gather the data until there is a winner, which is clear.
04:16That means the winner has so much distance to the second candidate,
04:21that this distance cannot be closed by the remaining votes.
04:26That is usually up above 90% of the votes being counted.
04:31This is where the National Electoral Council will share this information,
04:37which is being analyzed by the presence of representatives of all political parties
04:43that took part in this election, 38 their total number.
04:47Their technicians are there, they are following this process,
04:50and once it's finalized, it will be shared first with the candidates.
04:55And then afterwards, when the National Electoral Council has shared it with the candidates,
05:00it will later on then, to give them some time to prepare their reactions,
05:06and to prepare a possible speech they might want to hold.
05:10Then the National Electoral Council will announce the result,
05:15which will not be 100% a result, but it will be a definitive result,
05:20because it will be a result that is mathematically irreversible.
05:25And that will be the only announcement that the National Election Council will make,
05:30for our readers outside of Venezuela who might not know the election system here very well.
05:37There are no intermediate results, there are no exit polls,
05:41it is not like 10% of the votes counted, it stands like this,
05:4520% of the votes counted, it stands like this.
05:48No, this is not the case.
05:50Here, the National Electoral Council will announce one result,
05:54and that will be the final result announcing the president.
06:00Later on, some days later on, they will announce the 100% of the votes result,
06:06but that won't change, because the criteria to announce this result today
06:11is that it is irreversible mathematically.
06:15Thank you, Junius, for joining us at this edition of Venezuela Decides.
06:19It's always a pleasure to have you.