委內瑞拉否認謊報修憲會議投票人數

Venezuela's president and election chief on Wednesday denied a report that voter turnout numbers were "manipulated" and inflated by at least one million for the controversial election to choose an assembly to rewrite the national constitution.

The head of the National Election Council, Tibisay Lucena, said the claim by a British election-technology firm was "irresponsible," and she threatened to begin legal action against the company.

"This is an uNPRecedented opinion from a firm whose only role in the electoral process is to provide certain services and technical support that has no bearing on the results," Lucena said.

The head of British firm Smartmatic, Antonio Mugica, said in London Wednesday there is no question in his mind that the total reported vote was false. He did not, however, say whether vote tampering altered the outcome of Sunday's balloting.

"Based on the robustness of our system, we know without any doubt that the turnout of the recent election for a National Constituent Assembly was manipulated," Mugica said. "We estimate the difference between the actual participation and the one announced by authorities was at least one million."

President Nicolas Maduro said in televised remarks that Mugica was pressured by the United States and Britain. He also repeated the government's stance that eight million people voted, adding that the turnout would have been 10 million if others had not been blocked by protesters.

"This election cannot be stained by anyone, because it was a transparent vote," Maduro said.

The opposition, which boycotted the vote, said turnout was less than four million, and that account was reinforced by journalists' reports that dozens of polling places around Caracas were almost deserted on Sunday.

The president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Julio Borges, said Smartmatic's findings are "complete confirmation" of what the opposition and election analysts had suspected.

Pre-election polls showed more than 70 percent of all Venezuelans opposed a body to change the constitution.

The opposition contends the vote was rigged to pack the assembly with supporters of Maduro. Maduro's opponents are demanding early presidential elections. The next scheduled election is October, 2018.

Borges said lawmakers will ask the country's top prosecutor to investigate members of the National Election Council for potential crimes.

Luisa Ortega Diaz, Venezuela's top law enforcement official and a Maduro critic, told cnn in an interview Wednesday that she has opened an investigation into the allegations of vote manipulation.

Despite the controversy surrounding voter turnout and the final results, Maduro plans to swear in the 545 members of the new "constituent assembly" so they can get to work. He originally set Thursday for the assembly's opening session, but late Wednesday announced the new body would begin its inaugural session on Friday instead, for the sake of "peace and calm."

Details on what might be included in a new constitution are unclear. Maduro has said it is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its severe economic crisis and stop the daily protests that have killed more than 120 people since April.

But the opposition says its goal is to dissolve the opposition-controlled national assembly, fire anyone who disagrees with the government, and turn Venezuela into a socialist dictatorship.

The United States, Canada, European Union, and nearly every Latin American nation have said they will not recognize the constituent assembly.

The United States imposed sanctions against Maduro on Monday for what it called his "illegitimate" election of a body to rewrite the constitution. All of Maduro's assets in the United States are frozen and Americans are forbidden from doing any business with him.委內瑞拉總統和選舉委員會負責人星期三對有關“謊報” 修憲會議投票人數，比實際投票人數至少多出100萬的報道矢口否認。

委內瑞拉選舉委員會負責人盧塞納說，一家英國選舉技術公司的說法“不負責任”，並威脅要對這家公司採取法律行動。

盧塞納說：“這家公司在選舉程序中唯一的任務是提供特定服務和技術支持，對選舉結果沒有任何影響。他們發表這種意見是前所未聞的。”

然而，Smartmatic科技公司首席執行官安東尼奧·馬基卡星期三在倫敦表示，他十分肯定，委內瑞公佈的投票人數不屬實。不過，馬基卡沒有表示謊報選票是否改變了選舉的結果。

馬基卡說，“基於我們穩定的系統，我們知道，而且毫無疑問，最近國民修憲會議的投票人數受到了操縱篡改。我們估計實際參加投票的人數和官方宣佈的相差至少1百萬。”

委內瑞拉總統馬杜羅在電視講話中說，馬基卡受到了來自美國和英國的壓力。他再次重申政府立場，堅稱有800萬人參加投票，他還補充說，如果不是抗議者阻攔，本來會有1000萬人投票。

馬杜羅說：“任何人都無法抹黑這次選舉，因爲選舉是透明的。”

抵制此次選舉的反對派表示，實際投票人數不到400萬。據媒體報道，首都加拉加斯附近星期天有數十個投票站門可羅雀，似乎也佐證了反對派的說法。

反對派控制的全國代表大會主席博爾赫斯說，這家技術公司的發現“全面證實了”反對派和選舉分析人士的猜測。

選前民調顯示，百分之70以上的委內瑞拉人反對召集制憲會議修改憲法。

反對派質疑投票受到操縱，以便讓馬杜羅的支持者佔據制憲會議，馬杜羅的反對者要求提前舉行原定2018年10月舉行的總統選舉。

博爾赫斯說，全代會代表會要求委內瑞拉首席檢察官對全國選舉委員會成員進行調查，看他們是否有犯罪行爲。

委內瑞拉最高執法官員迪亞斯也是馬杜羅的批評者。她星期三接受美國有線電視新聞網採訪時說，她已經針對操縱投票的指控展開了調查。

儘管投票人數和最終投票結果都存在爭議，但是馬杜羅總統還是計劃讓545名制憲會議成員宣誓就職，儘快開始工作。馬杜羅原本計劃讓制憲會議星期四開會，但是星期三晚間宣佈，爲“和平和平穩”起見，制憲會議改在星期五11點開會。

新憲法中可能包括的內容明確還不清楚，但是馬杜羅說，這是唯一能讓委內瑞拉擺脫嚴重經濟危機，停止每天抗議示威的途徑。四月以來抗議引發的暴力衝突已造成120多人喪生。

但是反對派說，制憲會議的目的是解散反對派控制的全代會，解除所有跟政府意見不一致的人的職務，讓委內瑞拉變成一個社會主義的獨裁政權。

美國、加拿大、歐盟和幾乎所有拉美國家都表示，不承認制憲會議的合法性。

美國星期一對馬杜羅實施制裁，因爲他通過“非法”選舉，組建制憲會議改寫憲法。馬杜羅在美國的全部資產被凍結，美國人也被禁止跟馬杜羅做生意。