CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) 鈥� An AP analysis of vote tally sheets released Friday by Venezuela鈥檚 main opposition indicates that their candidate won significantly more votes in Sunday鈥檚 election than the government has claimed, casting serious doubt on the that President Nicol谩s Maduro won.
The AP processed almost 24,000 images of tally sheets, representing the results from 79% of voting machines. Each sheet encoded vote counts in QR codes, which the AP programmatically decoded and analyzed, resulting in tabulations of 10.26 million votes.
According to the calculations, the opposition鈥檚 Edmundo 骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄 received 6.89 million votes, nearly half a million more than the government says Maduro won with. The tabulations also show Maduro received 3.13 million votes from the tally sheets released.
By comparison, updated results from the governmental National Electoral Council made public Friday said that based on 96.87% of tally sheets, Maduro had 6.4 million votes and Gonzalez 5.3 million. National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso attributed the delay in updating results to 鈥渕assive attacks鈥� on the 鈥渢echnological infrastructure.鈥�
The AP could not independently verify the authenticity of the 24,532 tally sheets provided by the opposition. The AP successfully extracted data from 96% of the provided vote tallies, with the remaining 4% of images too poor to parse.
骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄 and opposition leader said Monday that they had secured the tally sheets from polling centers nationwide and that they showed lost his by a landslide.
The opposition first offered voters the opportunity to look up scanned copies of the tally sheets online. But following criticism and threats from Maduro and his inner circle, the campaign on Friday released its scans.
The , known in Spanish as 鈥渁ctas,鈥� are lengthy printouts that resemble shopping receipts. They have long been considered the ultimate proof of election results in Venezuela.
Earlier Friday, a half dozen masked assailants ransacked the opposition's headquarters in an escalation of violence after several countries called for proof of claim of victory.
Assailants broke down doors and hauled away valuable documents and equipment in the raid around 3 a.m., Machado and 骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄's party said. Several walls were covered in black spray paint.
The raid follows threats by top officials, including Maduro, to arrest Machado, who has gone into hiding while still urging Venezuelans and the international community to challenge Sunday鈥檚 election results.
The Biden administration has thrown its support firmly behind the opposition, recognizing as the victor and discrediting the National Electoral Council's official results. 骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄 was tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for Machado, who was barred from running for political office.
The U.S. announcement late Thursday followed calls from multiple governments, including Maduro's close regional allies, for Venezuela's electoral authorities to release precinct-level vote counts, as it has during previous elections.
鈥淕iven the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo 骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄 Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela鈥檚 July 28 presidential election,鈥� U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄, whose location is also unknown, posted a message on X thanking the U.S. 鈥渇or recognizing the will of the Venezuelan people reflected in our electoral victory and for supporting the process of restoring democratic norms in Venezuela.鈥�
Maduro said during a news conference Friday that the U.S. should stay out of Venezuela鈥檚 politics.
Maduro also alleged that members of the opposition 鈥減lan to carry out an attack鈥� in a Caracas neighborhood near where Machado called on supporters to gather with their families Saturday. He played audio and showed an image of a purported WhatsApp chat that he said was proof of the planned attack.
He said he has ordered the armed forces to guard the neighborhood. That order could limit the ability of opposition supporters to gather, but it would not affect the planned demonstration of ruling party supporters elsewhere in the city.
There has been a flurry of diplomatic efforts by Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to convince Maduro to allow an impartial audit of the vote. On Thursday, the governments of the three countries issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela's electoral authorities 鈥渢o move forward expeditiously and publicly release鈥� detailed voting data.
On Friday, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, said Russian election monitors witnessed Maduro's legitimate victory and accused the U.S. of stirring tensions in the country.
Venezuela sits atop the and once boasted Latin America鈥檚 most advanced economy, but it entered into a free fall marked by 130,000% hyperinflation and widespread shortages after Maduro took the helm in 2013. More than 7.7 million since 2014, in Latin America鈥檚 recent history.
U.S. oil sanctions have only deepened the misery, and the Biden administration 鈥� which had been easing those restrictions 鈥� is now likely to ramp them up again unless Maduro agrees to .
鈥淗e鈥檚 counting on being able to wait this out and people will get tired of demonstrating,鈥� said Cynthia Arnson, a distinguished fellow at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. 鈥淭he problem is, the country is in a death spiral and there鈥檚 no chance the economy will be able to recover without the legitimacy that comes from a fair election.鈥�
Thousands of opposition supporters Monday after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner, and the government said it .
On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela鈥檚 highest court of the election, but that request drew almost immediate criticism from who said the court 鈥� which like most institutions is controlled by the government 鈥� lacks the independence to perform a credible review.
On Friday afternoon, 骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄 was notably absent 鈥� an empty chair beside Maduro 鈥� when the court convened the nine presidential candidates.
Supreme Tribunal President Caryslia Rodr铆guez called on the candidates and their parties to provide all required documents as the court seeks to audit the results.
Maduro took the opportunity to call 骋辞苍锄谩濒别锄 鈥渢he candidate of fascism鈥� and promised to hand over all the voting tallies.
Later, Maduro and his campaign manager, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez, attempted to discredit the tally sheets posted online by the opposition, arguing that they were missing signatures from the electoral council representative as well as poll workers and party representatives.
They didn't acknowledge that soldiers, civilian militia, police and loyalists of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, on Sunday blocked some opposition representatives from entering the polls, witnessing the vote, and signing and obtaining copies of tally sheets.
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Goodman reported from Medellin, Colombia, and Kastanis from Los Angeles. Associated Press correspondents Mar铆a Verza in Mexico City and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and data journalists Chris Keller, Nicholas Forster, Larry Fenn, Kasturi Pananjady, Kavish Harjai and Aaron Kessler contributed.
Regina Garcia Cano, Joshua Goodman And Angeliki Kastanis, The Associated Press
