Maduro Dismisses Vote Rigging Charge, Delays Launch of New Assembly

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has rejected an allegation that the recent vote on the powerful national assembly was rigged, calling the claim a “reaction by the international enemy.”

“Nothing can stain this process, because it’s transparent,” said the Venezuelan leader at a meeting with the delegates elected to the new Constituent Assembly on Wednesday.

 According to the official figures released after Sunday’s vote, some eight million legitimate voters cast their ballots to elect a 545-seat assembly, which will be capable of rewriting the country’s constitution and dissolving the current opposition-led legislature. 

However, the UK-based Smartmatic Group, a multinational electronic voting company that provided nearly 24,000 voting machines for Venezuelans to cast their votes electronically, claimed Wednesday that the turnout figures had been “tampered with.”

Maduro, however, accused the international software firm of bowing to US pressure to cast doubt over the assembly, vowing that the electoral authorities would carry out a “100 percent audit.”

The Venezuelan leader not only defended the official count of over 8 million votes cast, but said another additional 2 million people would have participated in the election if they had not been blocked by anti-government protesters.

The assembly was initially scheduled to commence work on Thursday, but Maduro postponed the launch to Friday in the face of opposition plans for widespread protests.

“It has been proposed that the installation of the National Constituent Assembly, instead of being held tomorrow, be organized in peace and calm, with all necessary protocol, on Friday at 11:00 a.m. (1500 GMT),” he said.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) criticized the vote-tampering accusation in a statement, calling it “an irresponsible contention based on estimates with no grounding in the data.”

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