EU won’t recognize Venezuela poll result

HANOI — European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday the bloc could not recognize Venezuela’s election result until all votes were counted and records provided, amid international concerns over the integrity of the vote.

The election authority in Venezuela said President Nicolas Maduro had won a third term in office on Sunday with 51 percent of the vote to extend a quarter-century of socialist rule, despite exit polls that pointed to an opposition win.

Borrell said the electoral commission had announced the vote results on the basis of 80 percent of ballots counted, while the Venezuelan opposition had published very different results.

“That is an additional reason for not recognizing the results until they will be fully and independently verified,” he told reporters during a visit to Vietnam.

The members of the 27-nation bloc will decide on possible next steps only after the full results are made available, he added.

‘Serious breach’

Protesters took to the streets in Venezuela on Tuesday, demanding that Maduro acknowledge he lost the election, as a major international observer concluded the vote was undemocratic.

The government denounced the demonstrations as an attempted coup.

The US-based Carter Center, which observed the vote, said late on Tuesday the election could not be considered democratic as it “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity.”

The electoral authority’s failure to publish disaggregated results amounts to a “serious breach,” it added, outlining what it determined to be a deeply flawed process from start to finish.

The opposition, which considers the election body to be in the pocket of a dictatorial government, says its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had more than twice as many votes as Maduro based on the 90 percent of vote tallies it has been able to access.

‘Coward’

At least 11 people have been killed in different parts of the country since the election in incidents related to the count or associated protests, according to rights group Foro Penal.

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Many countries have called on Venezuela to make the vote tally public and US sources said Washington was considering fresh sanctions on individuals linked to the election unless there was greater transparency.

On Tuesday, both Maduro and his top legislative ally accused Gonzalez and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado of fomenting violence in the aftermath of the vote.

In a winding speech broadcast on state television, Maduro declared that opposition protesters had battered civilians and started fires, demanding that Gonzalez answer for them.

“Respond to that you coward!” Maduro shouted, after saying both Gonzalez and Machado should be held accountable.