Venezuela opposition candidate claims he can prove he beat Maduro in election
'We have in our hands the tally sheets that demonstrate our victory,' Edmundo Gonzlez says
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzlez on Monday said his campaign has the proof it needs to show that he was the winner of the country's highly anticipated presidential election whose victory authorities handed to President Nicols Maduro.
Gonzlez and Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado told reporters they have obtained more than 70 per cent of the tally sheets from Sunday's election, and they show Gonzlezwith more than double Maduro's votes. Both called on people, some of whom protested in the hours after Maduro was declared winner, to remain calm and invited them to gather peacefully at 11 a.m. local time Tuesday to celebrate the results.
"I speak to you with the calmness of the truth," Gonzlez said as dozens of supporters cheered outside campaign headquarters in the capital, Caracas. "The will expressed yesterday through your vote will be respected. We have in our hands the tally sheets that demonstrate our victory."
As he spoke, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest what they said was an attempt by Maduro to steal the election in which both candidates claimed victory.
Shortly after the National Electoral Council, which is loyal to Maduro's ruling party, officially declared him the winner, angry protesters began marching through Caracas and cities across Venezuela. The electoral body's announcement handed him a third six-year term.
Protests mostly peaceful
In the capital, the protests were mostly peaceful, but when dozens of riot gear-clad national police officers blocked the caravan, a brawl broke. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom threw stones and other objects at officers who had stationed themselves on a main avenue of an upper-class district.
A man fired a gun as the protesters moved through the city's financial district. No one suffered a gunshot wound.
The demonstrations followed an election that was among the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting hopes that Venezuela could avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule.
The winner was to take control of an economy recovering from collapse and a population desperate for change.
Machado told reporters tally sheets show Maduro and Gonzlez received more than 2.7 million and roughly 6.2 million votes respectively.
"A free people is one that is respected, and we are going to fight for our freedom," Gonzlez said. "Dear friends, I understand your indignation, but our response from the democratic sectors is of calmness and firmness."
Venezuelans vote using electronic machines, which record votes and provide every voter a paper receipt that shows the candidate of their choice. Voters are supposed to deposit their receipt at ballot boxes before exiting the polls.
After polls close, each machine prints a tally sheet showing the candidates' names and the votes they received.
But the ruling party wields tight control over the voting system, both through a loyal five-member electoral council and a network of longtime local party co-ordinators who get near unrestricted access to voting centres.
Those co-ordinators, some of whom are responsible for handing out government benefits including subsidized food, have blocked representatives of opposition parties from entering voting centres as allowed by law to witness the voting process, vote counting and, crucially, to obtain a copy of the machines' final tally sheet.
Electoral authorities had not yet released the tally sheets for each of the 30,000 voting machines as of Monday evening. The electoral body's website was down, and it remained unclear when the tallies would be available.
The lack of tallies prompted an independent group of electoral observers and the European Union to publicly urge the entity to release them.
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