CARACAS, Venezuela — The only independent observer monitoring the polls in Venezuela said Sunday’s vote for president did not meet international standards and was undemocratic, raising more questions about the legitimacy of the results.
The mission, led by the Carter Center, a pro-democracy organization, said late Tuesday that the election violated Venezuela’s own laws and the government’s failure to release a vote count was a “serious breach of electoral principles.”
The group joined the United States and many other countries that have said Venezuela’s election was marred by irregularities. At least 16 people have been killed in protests that erupted after election officials declared the country’s autocratic leader, President Nicolás Maduro, the winner.
The condemnation by the Carter Center, which was the lone independent election monitor the government allowed into Venezuela before the vote, came hours after opposition leaders announced updated election results, which they said showed Maduro received less than a third of votes cast.
Venezuelans went to the polls Sunday to choose between Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, and Edmundo González, a former diplomat who served as a stand-in for María Corina Machado, a more popular opposition leader who had been barred by the government from running.
Machado released data showing that with more than 81% of the machines counted, González received 67% of the vote, compared with 30% for Maduro. The opposition’s count came from voting machine tallies provided to election observers, which they scanned and calculated, she said.
The government-controlled election authority said Maduro had received 51% of the vote, and González 44%. But the authority has yet to provide voting data, and critics say the body essentially expected that the nation would take its word that Maduro won.
The Carter Center has observed more than 100 elections around the world and sent a delegation of 17 people to Venezuela. They met with the elections council, the candidates, political parties, the armed forces and other interested groups.
The Venezuelan election “cannot be considered democratic,” the Carter Center said in a statement late Tuesday.
While there were other election observers in Venezuela, they are friendly to Maduro and not considered impartial, analysts said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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