(Bloomberg) -- Brazil will not send experts to observe Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday as initially planned, in the wake of Nicolas Maduro’s critical comments on the electoral system from the South American giant.
Brazil’s top electoral court said in a statement it decided not to send observers to the vote on “false statements against Brazilian electronic voting machines” issued by Venezuelan authorities.
“The Brazilian electoral court does not accept that, internally or externally, through statements or acts that are disrespectful to the fairness of the Brazilian electoral process, the seriousness and integrity of elections and electronic voting machines in Brazil are disqualified with lies,” the court said.
While Brazil’s electoral court didn’t mention Maduro in its statement, the Venezuelan president said during a rally on Tuesday that his country had the “best electoral system in the world” because it has a strong auditing system.
“What other country in the world has this? The US? Its electoral system can’t be audited. Brazil’s? They don’t audit voting reports. Colombia? Not even one voting report. In Venezuela we audit 54% of the station polls,” he said.
The international community has criticized Maduro for barring many opposition candidates from running in the vote, including former lawmaker and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. A clean election is a condition for the US to remove sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry.
With Brazilian officials canceling their mission, fewer credible international observers will be active in Venezuela, which raises concerns over being able to adequately address possible claims of irregularities. Reports of fraud and voter manipulation have been raised in previous elections by political parties.
Venezuela withdrew the European Union’s invitation to observe the vote. The Carter Center and the United Nations are sending a few electoral experts — not observers — with limited responsibilities.
Tensions between Venezuela and Brazil have risen since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned Maduro, a long-term ally, that he should be ready to step down if losing the vote. “Maduro needs to learn: when you win, you stay; when you lose, you go away and get ready to dispute another election.”
Lula’s comments followed Maduro’s saying that if the opposition wins, a “blood bath” could ensue in Venezuela. The Brazilian president responded by saying, “whoever loses an election gets a reality check, not a blood bath.”
Despite the court’s decision, Celso Amorim, Lula’s top foreign affairs adviser, has not changed his plans to travel to Caracas “for now,” according to a Brazilian government official who requested anonymity to discuss the situation.
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