Partial Vote Audit Underway in Venezuela

President Nicolas Maduro waves to supporters after voting in the national elections. He won re-election on April 14, 2013., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Partial vote audit underway in Venezuela

Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:27AM GMT
presstv.ir

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) has started a partial audit of the country’s presidential election's votes, local media reports say.

The auditing, which includes the inspection of some 12,000 ballot boxes in 30 days, began on Monday.

Meanwhile, the opposition has boycotted the auditing process and demanded a full recount of the votes.

On April 14, Nicolas Maduro won the presidential election with 50.7 percent of the vote against 49.1 percent for opposition leader Henrique Capriles, with a difference of around 235,000 ballots.

On April 27, the president of CNE, Tibisay Lucena, said that Capriles had failed to present compelling proof that there were irregularities during the country’s presidential election.

Defeated Capriles said he would challenge the election’s results.

Earlier, Venezuela’s federal prosecutor’s office formally charged Timothy Tracy, an American, with paying political opponents in Venezuela to attend violent post-election protests, which left nine people dead and over 60 others injured.

Prosecutors also arrested retired Venezuelan Brigadier General Antonio Rivero, who is now a senior official with an opposition party, after a recording was found in one of Tracy’s bags, which allegedly shows him advising rioters during clashes with police in the capital of Caracas a day after the election.

On March 8, Maduro became Venezuela’s acting president, following the death of late President Hugo Chavez, who lost a two-year-long battle with cancer on March 5.

Maduro has promised to continue the socialist policies of the former leader.