Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday he was willing to provide evidence of his election victory amid mounting international pressure for him to provide data supporting his questionable victory, which has sparked deadly protests in the country.
The opposition, which claims its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was the legitimate winner, said 16 people were killed in protests that erupted after Sunday's election in the Latin American country.
The White House warned that its patience, and that of the international community, was “running out” with Venezuela. The US joined the European Union and countries in the region in demanding detailed data on the ballots that had been cast.
Maduro said he was “ready to present 100 percent of the data,” as he spoke to reporters outside the Supreme Court, where he is appealing what he called an “attack on the electoral process.”
“I am willing to be summoned, interrogated, investigated in all aspects by the electoral assembly as the presidential candidate who won the general election on Sunday,” Maduro said.
The 61-year-old, who has been in office since 2013, was declared the winner with 51 percent of the vote.
The opposition said its own tally of polling station results showed Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, winning by a wide margin.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was replaced by Gonzalez Urrutia after being barred from running, said Wednesday that 16 people had been killed protesting the election results.
“This is Maduro’s criminal response to the Venezuelan people who took to the streets as families, as communities, to defend their sovereign decision to live free,” he wrote. (ns/ab)
