Venezuelan electoral chief rejects vote tampering claims as "baseless"

Record ID: 905151

  • Title: Venezuelan electoral chief rejects vote tampering claims as "baseless"
  • Date: 2nd August 2017
  • Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (AUGUST 2, 2017) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE TO THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL HEADQUARTERS HEAD OF THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL, TIBISAY LUCENA, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE AND TAKING A SEAT MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HEAD OF THE VENEZUELAN NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL, TIBISAY LUCENA, SAYING: "It's an irresponsible assertion based on baseless information from the data managed exclusively by the electoral body. It is even more serious given that Smartmatic participated in all the audits, they set up the key for the encryption of the files and protection for the applications that were deployed for the electoral platform." LUCENA TALKING TO MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HEAD OF THE VENEZUELAN NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL, TIBISAY LUCENA, SAYING: "These statements (from the auditing firm) were issued in the context of the aggression that was initiated two weeks ago against the Venezuelan electoral body, otherwise known as the sanction by the US government to me personally as presidential of the electoral body." GENERAL VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALIST WRITING ON HER SMARTPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HEAD OF THE VENEZUELAN NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL, TIBISAY LUCENA, SAYING: "The Venezuelan electoral system has a security set up with procedures that leaves the vote in the hands of Venezuelans." GENERAL VIEW OF LUCENA SITTING ON PANEL AT FRONT OF NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 16th August 2017 22:20
  • Keywords: Venezuela Maduro Constituent Assembly Smartmatic Voting Machine tampering allegations President of the National Electoral Council Tibisay Lucena
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • City: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016SGTHZB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Venezuela's electoral chief on Wednesday (August 2) rejected allegations that Caracas has inflated the turnout figures for its constituent assembly election by at least 1 million votes, criticising the London firm's alleged evidence as "baseless".
    Electronic voting technology firm Smartmatic, which created the voting system used by Venezuela since 2004, said the turnout figures had been tampered with. But the head of Venezuela's National Electoral Body Tibisay Lucena said the allegations were "baseless", adding that the figures in question were managed exclusively by the Venezuelan government and not the auditing firm.
    Lucena was recently put on a list of sanctioned individuals by the US for undermining democracy in the OPEC nation. She told media that the tampering allegations are part of an "aggression" against Venezuela.
    The accusations came hours after Reuters exclusively reported that only 3.7 million people had voted by 5:30 p.m. in Sunday's (July 30) poll, according to internal elections data, compared with 8.1 million people authorities said had voted that day. Venezuela's electoral council extended voting to 7 p.m., but election experts said doubling the vote in the last hour and a half would be without precedent.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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