Venezuela’s Maduro Asks Pro-Government Supreme Court To Audit His Disputed Election

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro said he asked the country’s Supreme Court to conduct an audit of the presidential election after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory, drawing swift condemnation by independent observers.

Maduro told reporters Wednesday that the ruling party is also ready to show the totality of the vote tally sheets from Sunday’s election.

“I throw myself before justice,” he said to reporters outside the Supreme Court’s headquarters in Caracas, adding that he is “willing to be summoned, questioned, investigated.”

This is Maduro’s first concession to demands for more transparency about the election. However, the Supreme Court is closely aligned with his government; federal officials propose the court’s justices and they are ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.

The Carter Center criticized Maduro’s audit request, saying the court wouldn’t provide an independent review.

“You have another government institution which is appointed by the government to verify the government numbers for the election results which are in question,” said Jennie K. Lincoln, a senior advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean and the leader of the delegation that the Carter Center sent to monitor the election in Venezuela. “This is not an independent assessment.”

The Atlanta-based group said Tuesday night that it was unable to verify the results of the election, and it blamed authorities for a “complete lack of transparency” in declaring Maduro the winner. Venezuela’s electoral authorities allowed the group to send 17 experts to observe the election.

Maduro’s main challenger, Edmundo González, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, say they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed. They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Maduro lost the election.

Maduro insisted to reporters that there had been a plot against his government and that the electoral system was hacked, but he didn’t give any specifics or present any evidence. He is expected to address national and foreign media…