‘Venezuelan vote turnout figures manipulated’

Election tech company says figures were overstated by 1 mn

Turnout figures in Venezuela’s Constitutional Assembly election were manipulated up by least 1 million votes, Smartmatic, a company which has worked with Venezuela since 2004 on its voting system, said on Wednesday.

“We know, without any doubt, that the turnout of the recent election for a National Constituent Assembly was manipulated,” Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said at a news briefing in London. Mr. Mugica said Smartmatic, which has provided electronic voting technology for elections around the world, was able to detect the overstated officially announced turnout because of Venezuela’s automated election system.

“We estimate the difference between the actual participation and the one announced by authorities is at least 1 million votes,” he said. Mr. Mugica declined to directly answer whether the manipulated turnout numbers changed the result of the election, in which authorities said 8.1 million people voted.

‘Illegitimate vote’

The election of the legislative super-body has been decried by critics as illegitimate and designed to give the unpopular government of President Nicolas Maduro powers to rewrite the Constitution and sideline the opposition-led congress.

Mr. Mugica said the authorities in Venezuela would likely not be sympathetic to his comments and that he had not yet passed the evidence to Venezuela’s electoral council. The National Elections Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile the government said it is close to convening the Constituent Assembly. Vice-President, whom the U.S. has accused of drug trafficking, said the newly elected constituent assembly would be convening “within hours.”

In remarks shown on state television, Tareck El Aissami said the results from Sunday’s election had been reviewed and the 545 assembly members would soon take the reins of the nation’s government. He didn’t give a specific time.