Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has stated that his party is prepared to publish the vote tallies from his country’s disputed election, despite election observers saying it “could not be considered democratic.”
The National Electoral Council’s pronouncement that Mr Maduro won has provoked two days of protests, with the country’s opposition claiming ballot tallies show its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a large margin.
According to non-governmental organisations , at least 11 people have died in protest-related violence, with dozens more injured.
Speaking to media on Wednesday, Mr Maduro said that his government’s decision not to announce the election results was due to a “hack” on the electoral council website.
He also claimed to have “proof” that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was behind the “violence.”
He said that protestors were “attacking” the constitution and urged the Supreme Court to intervene, perhaps paving the path for future mass arrests of opposition figures or protesters.
On Wednesday, the US-based Carter Center which was invited by Venezuelan officials to monitor Sunday’s presidential poll said it could not “verify or corroborate the results of the election declared by CNE.”
The opposition have said they’ve obtained the majority of receipts from electronic voting machines, which prove they won the election with 70% of the vote.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado says voting tallies show that Edmundo González won the election.
With its statement, the Carter Centre 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 country’s election.
