Michael Rowan writes a special opinion piece for El Universal comparing the elections in Iraq to those of Venezuela. One of them doesn’t measure up to standards, and you may not be surprised as to which one it is.

In Venezuela, RR voter turnout was very high – but augmented by two million new voters added late to the messy voter list, such as the FARC’s Granda. Venezuelans at the voting centers did not count the vote – the CNE did a centralized count with new and non-audited electronic machines that could send or receive a vote count. When exit polls showed a 34% variation with the CNE count, and statistical analysis showed its count to be virtually impossible, no proper audit was transparently conducted to put these doubts to rest. The CNE sequestered the vote count as if it was protecting state secrets, while the Carter Center observers acceded to the CNE without any proof it was doing the right thing, only later to let slip in a Washington meeting, “We will never know the vote count in Venezuela.”