Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has declared that Venezuela’s referendum vote to claim Guyana’s Essequibo region was a resounding failure for the Nicholas Maduro admnistration as the majority of voters stayed away from the vote.

While Venezuela has claimed that close to 10 million people voted in the referendum, independent media observers have indicated that the number was much lower and more than 80% of voters did not participate in the referendum vote.

During an interview with BBC News in Dubai, Vice President Jagdeo who is attending the COP28 Climate Change Conference said the “yes” vote on the referendum was not surprising, but the entire referendum turned out to be a failure for the Venezuelan government.

“Everyone in the world expected that once the referendum was held, that they would have a yes vote, but we believe it was a resounding failure for the Maduro Government considering only half of the total eligible voters turned out and of the half that turned out, not 100% voted in favour of a yes vote…so its a defeat we believe for Maduro”, Mr. Jagdeo told the BBC.

The Vice President explained further that Latin American news agencies that followed the vote reported a much lower turn out. He said the Electoral Council in Venezuela appears to have “rigged” the figures of the turn out.

According to Vice President Jagdeo, “even with the rigging of figures, they still didn’t have half of the eligible voters on an issue that Venezuela has over the past 50 years has been saying to their people that Essequibo belongs to them…the entire world is in support of Guyana on this matter”.

Mr. Jagdeo said the International Court of Justice has already made a definitive ruling, which blocks Venezuela from taking any action on the Essequibo region.

The Government of Guyana continues to engage its international partners on the border controversy and the aggression from Caracas. The Guyana Military remains on high alert with additional troops being dispatched to bordering locations.

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