Brussels will not recognize the result of Venezuela’s presidential election until all votes have been counted and full data released, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borel said, amid accusations of fraud by the Latin American country’s opposition.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced Monday that President Nicolás Maduro has been reelected for a third term. However, the opposition has denounced “massive fraud” and argued that its own candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won with “73%” of the vote.
According to official CNE results, Maduro received 51.2% of the vote, while Gonzalez Urrutia received 44.2%.
Mr Borel noted that the result was announced by the CNE after 80% of the votes had been counted and that the opposition gave completely different results. “This is an additional reason not to recognise the result before it is fully and independently verified,” he added, speaking to journalists during his visit to Vietnam.
He said the 27 will decide the next steps after the full results are released.