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.
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