Venezuela’s Electoral Council to Conduct Full Audit of Votes

HAVANA TIMES —  Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced today that it would broaden the requested electoral audit to one hundred percent of the votes cast at Sunday’s elections, when Maduro defeated opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by less than two percentage points, reported dpa news.

“We’ve decided to broaden the auditing process to cover the 46 percent of the ballot boxes that weren’t inspected on the day of the election,” CNE Chairwoman Tibisay Lucena announced on Venezuelan national television.

Also See: Capriles Gets His Election Audit

Fifty-four percent of the votes have already been audited. On Wednesday, the opposition demanded that the CNE carry out a full recount of the votes.

Alleging “irregularities”, the opposition also requested that voting registries, ballots and electronically-issued records be inspected. The CNE Chairwoman made no comments in this regard.

“Venezuela’s electoral system is completely transparent and the results truthfully reflect the votes cast. The electoral system has long been subjected to audits and other inspections which attest to its integrity,” Lucena stated, adding that the re-count would require several weeks.