After the fraud denouncement, Smartmatic delivers its electoral software
“Today with the deepest regret we have to inform that the participation data of last Sunday July 30 for the election to the constituent assembly was manipulated.”
This is how Antonio Múgica, president of Smartmatic begins his comments on August 2, 2017, marking moment in which the years-long relationship between the Venezuelan government and the developer of the Venezuela’s SAES electoral software is broken.
Jorge Rodríguez, head of strategy and propaganda of the ruling party’s campaign command for the Constituent Assembly, qualifies the accusations as “hoaxes and lies” and said that the “election” was “squeaky clean”.
But for the regional and municipal elections of the same year, as reported by an investigative article of the Miami Herald, Smartmatic provided its software so that the Venezuelan government could carry out these elections.
Without Smartmatic’s electoral software, elections cannot be held in Venezuela since its system is the one running in the voting machines manufactured in its Taiwan Jarltech warehouse.
Smartmatic provided engineers for the process of auditing the source code and activating it in licensing mode for at least two events, including the 2018 presidential elections where Nicolas Maduro was elected president again.
“In an email sent later to the Herald, the company did not deny that its software had been used in the two elections held in the last quarter of 2017 (the regional elections in October and the municipal elections in December), as well as in the 2018 presidential elections. But it emphasized that the software could not be considered to be authentically Smartmatic’s because the company did not participate in its use.”
“No Smartmatic software can be considered authentic unless Smartmatic is involved in every step of the chain of custody throughout all phases of election implementation, not just in the delivery of the software license,” the company told the Herald.
Source:
1.https://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/america-latina/venezuela.html
2.www.cne.gob.ve/aud-soft-maquina-votacion-12-9-2017.pdf
3.http://www.cne.gob.ve/web/elecciones/2017/regionales/.pdf
4.https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-40809426
5.smartmatic-no-tenemos-trato-alguno-con-el-cne-ni-con-su-proveedor-excle
6.https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerajuanr/
1. Did Smartmatic really break off relations with the National Electoral Council?
2. Antonio Múgica’s statements were made to try to save Smartmatic’s reputation and not to be linked to the Venezuelan regime?
3. Was Jorge Rodriguez involved as a strategist in the actions of Smartmatic in the communiqués?
4. What was Smartmatic’s interest in ceding the software managed for the National Electoral Council (CNE)?
5. In order for the voting machines to work, is it not true that Smartmatic must manage the software and comply with the auditing protocol for validation by the competing political parties?
6. What was the reason for using the Argentine firm, ExCle, S.A., serve as a cutout for Smartmatic with the CNE?
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