(2 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Caracas, Venezuela – 02 August 2024
1. Various of President of the National Electoral Council Elvis Amoroso and other electoral officials at news conference
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Elvis Amoroso, President of the National Electoral Council:
“Candidate Nicolás Maduro Moros. PSUV party (United Socialist Party). Votes, 6.408.844, with 51,95%.”
3. Pan right of Amoroso and officials
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Elvis Amoroso, President of the National Electoral Council:
“(Candidate) Edmundo Gonzalez, MUD (United Democratic Party). Votes, 5.326.104, with 43,18%.”
5. Amoroso shaking hands after briefing
6. Various exteriors of National Electoral Council
STORYLINE:
The President of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council on Friday ratified the re-election of President Nicolás Maduro as electoral authorities gave an updated vote count, but not the precinct-level tallies demanded.
Elvis Amoroso said that with 96.9% of tally sheets counted, Maduro’s margin of victory was more than 8 percentage points over opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez: 52% to 43.2%.
He attributed the delay in updating results to “massive attacks” on the “technological infrastructure.”
Five days after the election, the web page of the organization where the country’s 30,000 voting tallies — printouts from the electronic voting machines — should be seen, is still down.
Earlier, half a dozen masked assailants ransacked the headquarters of Venezuela’s opposition, in an escalation of violence against Maduro’s opponents after several countries called for proof of his claim he had won the disputed poll.
Assailants broke down doors and hauled away valuable documents and equipment in the raid around 3 a.m., opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s party said.
Images published by Machado’s party on social media show several walls covered in black spray paint.
The raid follows threats by top officials, including Maduro, to arrest Machado, who has gone into hiding while still urging Venezuelans and the international community to challenge Sunday’s election results.
The Biden administration has thrown its support firmly behind the opposition, recognizing González as the victor and discrediting the National Electoral Council’s official results.
González was tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for Machado, who has been barred from running for political office for 15 years.
The U.S. announcement late Thursday followed calls from multiple governments, including Maduro’s close regional allies, for Venezuela’s electoral authorities to release precinct-level vote counts, as it has done during previous elections.
The electoral body declared Maduro the winner on Monday, but the main opposition coalition revealed hours later that it had collected copies of more than 80% of the country’s voting tallies and that they show González prevailed by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
AP Video shot by Lucas Dumphreys
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