Venezuela election results were manipulated, voting company says
Source: The Miami Herald
CARACAS - In a stunning admission that fueled opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the company that runs the South American country’s voting technology said the results of widely condemned election Sunday had been manipulated.
The chief executive of Smartmatic, a company founded by Venezuelans specifically to supply voting software for the administration of the late President Hugo Chávez, acknowledged Sunday’s results had been inflated by at least 1 million votes.
“It is with the deepest regret that we have to report that the turnout numbers on Sunday, July 30, for the constituent assembly in Venezuela were tampered with,” Antonio Mugica said in a London news conference.
Due to the lack of audits and other electoral controls, Mugica said his firm couldn’t stand by the government’s results, which claimed nearly 8.1 million ballots cast. Mugica lay some of the blame on Maduro’s opponents for boycotting the election, which meant its representatives weren’t present at the polls as a safeguard.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article164968042.html
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