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Associated Press

President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday asked Venezuela’s Supreme Court to conduct an audit of the presidential election after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory, drawing criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.
Maduro told reporters Wednesday that the ruling party is also ready to show all the vote tally sheets from Sunday’s election.
“I throw myself before justice,” he said to reporters outside the Supreme Court’s headquarters in Caracas, adding that he is “willing to be summoned, questioned, investigated.”
This is Maduro’s first concession to demands for more transparency about the election. However, the Supreme Court is closely aligned with his government; the court’s justices are proposed by federal officials and are ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathisers.

The Carter Centre criticised Maduro’s audit request, saying the court wouldn’t provide an independent review.
“You have another government institution, which is appointed by the government, to verify the government numbers for the election results, which are in question,” said Jennie K. Lincoln, who led the Carter Centre’s delegation that monitored the election in Venezuela. “This is not an independent assessment.”
The Atlanta-based group said Tuesday night that it was unable to verify the results of the election, and it blamed authorities for a “complete lack of transparency” in declaring Maduro the winner. Venezuela’s electoral authorities allowed the Carter Centre to send 17 observers.
Maduro’s main challenger, Edmundo Gonzalez, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, say they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed. They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Maduro lost the election.
Maduro insisted to reporters that there had been a plot against his government and that the electoral system was hacked. He returned to that idea during a news conference later Wednesday.
Asked why the electoral authorities have not released detailed vote counts, Maduro said the council has come under attack, including cyberattacks.
“Engineers are fighting right now” to solve those attacks, he said without elaborating.

The government presented some videos that the president said showed people attacking and torching some electoral offices. The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the footage.
Venezuela’s prosecutor said Wednesday that more than 1,000 people related to some of those attacks have been arrested.
Pressure has been building against the president since the election. The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to his United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has yet to release any printed results from polling centres as it did in past elections.
Maduro’s close ally, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, on Wednesday joined other foreign leaders in urging him to release detailed vote counts. A day earlier, another of Maduro’s allies, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, along with US President Joe Biden called for the “immediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data at the polling station level”.
Brazil’s presidential office refused to comment Wednesday on whether a Supreme Court audit would amount to an independent verification of election results, instead pointing to a statement from the Ministry for Foreign Relations published Monday.
That statement said the Brazilian government awaits “the publication by the National Electoral Council of data broken down by polling station, an indispensable step for the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the election result”.

Lula said of Maduro on Tuesday that “the more transparency there is, the greater his chance of having peace to govern Venezuela”.
Machado said the vote tallies the opposition has obtained show Gonzalez received roughly 6.2 million votes compared with 2.7 million for Maduro. That is widely different from the electoral council’s report that Maduro received 5.1 million votes, against more than 4.4 million for Gonzalez.
“The serious doubts that have arisen around the Venezuelan electoral process can lead its people to a deep violent polarisation with serious consequences of permanent division,” Petro said Wednesday in a post on social media site X.
“I invite the Venezuelan government to allow the elections to end in peace, allowing a transparent vote count, with the counting of votes, and with the supervision of all the political forces of its country and professional international supervision,” he added.
Petro proposed that Maduro’s government and the opposition reach an agreement “that allows for the maximum respect of the (political) force that has lost the elections.” The agreement, he said, could be submitted to the United Nations Security Council.
The Organisation of American States was set to convene Wednesday to discuss Venezuela’s election.


Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000 per cent led to social unrest and mass emigration.
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history. Many have settled in Colombia.
Speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Wednesday, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief said the bloc won’t recognise Maduro’s claim of electoral victory without independent verification of voting records.
“They should have been provided immediately, as in any democratic electoral process,” Josep Borrell said.
Within hours of the electoral council saying Maduro had won, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Caracas and other cities. The protests, which continued into Tuesday, turned violent at times, and law enforcement responded with tear gas and rubber pellets.
The Venezuela-based human rights organisation Foro Penal said 11 people, including two minors, were killed in election-related unrest.
Maduro’s closest ruling party allies quickly came to his defence. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez – his chief negotiator in dialogues with the US and the opposition – insisted Maduro was the indisputable winner and called his opponents violent fascists. He called for Machado and Gonzalez to be arrested.
In a Spanish-language post on X, the EU’s Borrell urged Venezuelan authorities to “end detentions, repression and violent rhetoric against members of the opposition”.
Meanwhile, Machado and Gonzalez urged their supporters to remain calm.
“I ask Venezuelans to continue in peace, demanding that the result be respected and the tally sheets be published,” González said on X. “This victory, which belongs to all of us, will unite us and reconcile us as a nation.”


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Venezuela

Venezuela’s President Maduro asks Supreme Court to audit disputed presidential election

Demonstrators take part in a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s questioned victory. Photo: AFP

President Nicolas Maduro during a news conference on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, left, and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. Photo: AP

Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro take part in a rally in Caracas. Photo: AFP

Protests in Venezuela against Maduro spread, opposition says it has proof it won election

A demonstrator walks in front of police officers during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas. Photo: AFP

Demonstrators in Caracas on Monday. Photo: AFP

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. Photo: EPA-EFE

Maduro congratulated by China after claiming victory in contested Venezuelan election

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro (left) poses with the president of the National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso, in Caracas on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez arrives for a church service after voting in the presidential election in Caracas on Sunday. Photo: AP

Voters line up outside a polling station in Caracas on Sunday. Photo: AP

Hundreds detained in Venezuela as post-election unrest turns deadly

Bolivarian National Guard detain demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Reuters

Demonstrators gather to protest election results in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Reuters

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a rally at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. Photo: AFP

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. Photo: Reuters

Maduro’s Venezuela election win can’t be recognised due to ‘exceptional manipulation’: OAS

A voter casts a ballot during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 28. A regional body observing the election says the results cannot be recognised. Photo: Bloomberg

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Under pressure, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro says he is willing to present poll results


Maduro asked Venezuela’s top court to audit the results of Sunday’s presidential election in a bid to legitimise his self-declared victory.
