Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has insisted his party is ready to present all the vote tallies from his country’s disputed election after election observers said it "could not be considered democratic”.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) declaration that Maduro won has sparked two days of protests, with the country’s opposition saying voting tallies show its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a wide margin.
NGOs say there have been at least 11 deaths in protest-related violence and that dozens more have been injured.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Maduro said again that his government’s reason for not publishing the electoral results was because of a "hack” on the electoral council website.
He also claimed he had "proof” that the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, was behind "violence”.
He alleged that protesters were "attacking” the constitution and asked the Supreme Court to take action, which could pave the way for more mass arrests of opposition figures or protesters.
Top US diplomat for Latin America, Brian Nichols, said the evidence showed President Maduro overwhelmingly lost by "millions” of votes - endorsing vote tallies released by his opponents.
"The tabulation of these detailed results clearly show an irrefutable result: Edmundo González won with 67% of these votes compared to 30% for Maduro,” he said in remarks at an Organisation of American States (OAS) meeting, AFP reported.
"While not a total result, there are not enough votes in remaining tally sheets... to overcome such a deficit,” he continued. Earlier on Wednesday the US-based Carter Center - which was invited by Venezuelan officials to monitor Sunday’s presidential poll - said it could not "verify or corroborate the results of the election declared by CNE”. (Agencies)