Venezuela held a presidential election on May 20. According to the National Electoral Council, 5.8 million voters supported the current head of state, Nicolás Maduro, and 1.8 million voted for the main opposition candidate, Henri Falcon.

Despite the fanned up hysteria, the election took place in a calm and peaceful atmosphere, which points to the high civic responsibility of those Venezuelans who came to the polling stations and their commitment to the democratic procedure of the expression of will.

Regrettably, the outside factor played a negative role in the election process. The United States and a number of other countries openly and officially, including at the government level, declared their refusal to recognise a priori the results of the voting. Understandably, this attitude is fraught with serious long-term repercussions. Indicatively, this campaign was conducted also against those who were ready to come to ballot boxes and show their preferences in a peaceful manner even despite their refusal to accept the current Venezuelan realities.

This has created a dangerous precedent, when the legitimacy of the election process is made dependent not even on the position of international observers invited to monitor the elections (300 experts from 40 countries of Latin America, Asia, North America and Europe and a number of international organisations) but on the viewpoint declared by certain states in advance. We believe it is very important to consider this circumstance for Latin American countries that experience at times difficult periods in their history.

There is no doubt that appeals not to recognise the results of the election are bound to create a government vacuum, which is fraught with serious destabilisation inside the country and beyond. Every state should have a government, in particular, as a guarantor of socioeconomic rights and needs of the population. The way to fully fulfil them in Venezuela lies in nationwide dialogue and reconciliation.

We believe this approach will become the foundation for the activities of the new government that will be formed after the election. Importantly, the logic of the development of domestic processes and actions of all political forces in the country should strictly conform to the provisions of the Constitution and norms of national legislation.