Maduro promises voting data as observers say Venezuela election ânot democraticâ
Venezuelaâs President Nicolas Maduro has insisted his party is ready to present all the vote tallies from his countryâs disputed election after election observers said it âcould not be considered democraticâ.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) declaration that Mr Maduro won has sparked two days of protests, with the countryâs opposition saying voting tallies show its candidate, Edmundo GonzĂĄlez, won by a wide margin.
NGOs say there have been at least 11 deaths in protest-related violence and that dozens more have been injured.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Mr Maduro said again that his governmentâs reason for not publishing the electoral results was because of a âhackâ on the electoral council website.
He also claimed he had âproofâ that the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was behind âviolenceâ.
He alleged that protesters were âattackingâ the constitution and asked the Supreme Court to take action, which could pave the way for more mass arrests of opposition figures or protesters.
Top US diplomat for Latin America, Brian Nichols, said the evidence showed President Maduro overwhelmingly lost by âmillionsâ of votes â endorsing vote tallies released by his opponents.
âThe tabulation of these detailed results clearly show an irrefutable result: Edmundo Gonzalez won with 67% of these votes compared to 30% for Maduro,â he said in remarks at an Organisation of American States (OAS) meeting, AFP reported.
âWhile not a total result, there are not enough votes in remaining tally sheets⊠to overcome such a deficit,â he continued.
Earlier on Wednesday the US-based Carter Center â which was invited by Venezuelan officials to monitor Sundayâs presidential poll â said it could not âverify or corroborate the results of the election declared by CNEâ.
The Carter Center also said that the CNEâs failure to announce the detailed results by polling station âconstitutes a serious breach of electoral principlesâ.
It added that the CNE had âdemonstrated a clear bias in favour of the incumbent [President NicolĂĄs Maduro]â and accused the CNE of a âcomplete lack of transparency in announcing the resultsâ.
The opposition have said theyâve obtained the majority of receipts from electronic voting machines which prove they won the election with 70% of the vote.
With its statement, the Carter Center has joined a long list of countries and organisations pressuring the CNE to release detailed voting data at the polling station level, among them the US, Brazil and the EU.
The US state department said the international community was running out of patience waiting for Venezuelan electoral authorities to release full detailed data on their countryâs election.
The Carter Center statement is embarrassing for the Maduro government because its observers had been complimentary about the Venezuelan electoral system in the past.
President Maduro has often quoted a remark by the Carter Centerâs founder, former US President Jimmy Carter, who in 2012 said that âof the 92 elections that weâve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the worldâ.
More than 1,000 people have so far been detained, according to Venezuelaâs attorney general, who also said that two members of the security forces had died in the protests.
Ms Machado has urged her supporters to remain peaceful even if provoked by the government and its allies.
On Tuesday, a close ally of President Maduro, National Assembly leader Jorge RodrĂguez, called for the arrest of Ms Machado and Mr GonzĂĄlez, accusing them of leading a âfascist conspiracyâ.
President Maduro told media on Wednesday Ms Machado and Mr GonzĂĄlez âshould be behind barsâ, AFP reported.
The Costa Rican foreign minister later offered Ms Machado and Mr GonzĂĄlez political asylum, saying that his government âhad been informed of arrest warrantsâ against the two.
Ms Machado thanked the Costa Rican government but said that it was her âresponsibility to continue this struggle alongside the peopleâ.
In a separate social media post late on Wednesday, Ms Machado urged her supporters to âmobiliseâ.
She wrote on X: âItâs time to trust in each other. To stay active and firm.
âIt took time to win; now itâs time to collect.â