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What can’t be stolen at the ballot box

In the wake of a flawed election, Venezuelans assert that the legitimacy of power rests in truthfulness and dignity.

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Protesters in Caracas, Venezuela, demonstrate against the National Election Council certification of President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, July 30, two days after the vote.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

The watchdogs of good governance who say democracy is slipping seemed to gain traction Sunday. Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed a hasty victory in a presidential election widely seen as flawed. By the next day, however, his opponents had gathered their own tally of votes, making a case to challenge his grip on power.

“I speak to you with the calmness of the truth,” said Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate regarded by many – even by Maduro supporters – as the rightful winner.

“A free people is one that is respected,” he added, “and we are going to fight for our freedom ... [with] calmness and firmness.”

His words are an echo of what many other pro-democracy leaders say in countries where rulers are suppressing democratic dissent.

“For us, there’s more than power; there’s truth,” said India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi after a strong showing in a recent election.

In dictator-ruled Uganda, opposition leader Bobi Wine defined the role of pro-democracy groups in a similar way. “We’ve been able to put truth on the table,” he said. “We don’t believe in revenge, but we believe in truth and reconciliation.” 

In Iran, Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned activist who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, said the people are “the determining factor in the democracy equation.”

In Belarus, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said last year that the people “have chosen the path of non-violence against violence, love against hatred, creativity against brutality, solidarity against confrontation.”

Venezuela is the latest country to find itself midstream in a transition back to democracy. And it may be showing how tyranny unravels. “The superficial appeal of the rise-of-autocracy thesis belies a more complex reality – and a bleaker future for autocrats,” observed Kenneth Roth, then the executive director of Human Rights Watch, in a 2022 article in Foreign Policy.

Around the world, citizens keep affirming that power resides in calming truths, such as accurate vote counts and peaceful displays of equality.

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