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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has asked the government-controlled Supreme Court to audit the election in which he was declared the winner amid mounting international scepticism and unrest at home.
Maduro said his ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela “is ready to present 100 per cent of the ballot papers that are in our hands” to the court, which is stacked with allies.
The authoritarian leftist leader added that he was prepared to be “summoned, interrogated and investigated” by the high court’s electoral body as part of the audit, after alleging the election had been the target of a cyber attack amid a “psychological war” in the media.
“The appeal is for the electoral chamber to address this attack on the electoral process and to clarify everything that needs to be clarified,” he said in remarks to journalists.
The National Electoral Council (CNE), which is also under Maduro’s sway, declared him the winner on Monday with 51.2 per cent of the vote against 44.2 per cent for opposition candidate Edmundo González. González, a former diplomat, stood as a surrogate for María Corina Machado, who leads the opposition but was banned from running. The remaining 4.6 per cent was shared between eight other candidates.
The CNE has not published a detailed breakdown of the results, while Maduro and members of his inner circle have called for González and Machado to be arrested.
The opposition, which ran a nationwide monitoring mission of its own, has declared González the victor and president-elect with 7.1mn votes against 3.2mn for Maduro.
US non-profit the Carter Center, which evaluates elections, said on Tuesday that it was unable to verify the results of the election and blamed officials for a “complete lack of transparency”.
Countries including the US, the EU and Venezuela’s regional allies Brazil and Colombia have called on Caracas to provide the results in an effort to diffuse mounting turmoil.
“Our patience, and that of the international community, is running out on waiting for the Venezuelan electoral authorities to come clean and release the full, detailed data on this election so everyone can see the results,” John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesman, said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, authorities have cracked down on the days-long protests that broke out following the vote. The Caracas-based rights group Foro Penal said on Tuesday that 11 people had been killed during the unrest, while authorities said that 749 people had been arrested for “violent acts”.
“Venezuela and the world know’s that violence is the Maduro regime’s last resort,” Machado, the opposition leader, posted on X on Wednesday. “Now, after the resounding and indisputable electoral victory that we Venezuelans achieved on July 28, the regime’s response is murder, kidnapping and persecution.”
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