Venezuela's opposition leader called on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to acknowledge his electoral defeat following his disputed claims of victory.
Maduro was declared the winner of this weekend's election by the government-controlled election authority, which prompted widespread international concerns due to beliefs that his opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, former ambassador of Venezuela to Argentina, had actually won.
Gonzalez and his campaigning partner, Maria Corina Machado, former deputy of the National Assembly of Venezuela, said they could prove Gonzalez's victory after obtaining more than 70% of the voting tallies from polling stations.
“He should understand that he was defeated,” Machado told the Guardian . “I would say his departure is irreversible.”
There have been protests and clashes between supporters and opponents of Maduro in the streets of several cities. In Caracas, the capitol, security forces have deployed tear gas to disperse protesters, according to CNN .
The Organization of American States's election observation department announced Tuesday the election results could not be trusted with transparency from Venezuela's election council and said the "complete manual for fraudulent handling of the electoral result was applied in Venezuela."
“The worst form of repression, the most vile, is to prevent the people from finding solutions through elections,” the organization said in a statement. “The obligation of each institution in Venezuela should be to ensure freedom, justice, and transparency in the electoral process. The people should have the maximum guarantees of political freedom to be able to express themselves at the polls, and to protect the rights of citizens to be elected.”
U.S. officials have also expressed their concern about the legitimacy of the election results and called for transparency.
"We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. "It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes."
A senior U.S. administration official told reporters Monday that the "analysis that we have received from several sources indicates that the final, official announced results are at odds with how people actually voted."
The United States and Venezuela held talks in Qatar last year, which paved the way for this week's elections. In those talks, however, U.S. negotiators agreed to suspend significant sanctions on Venezuela's state-controlled oil and gas industry in exchange for Maduro's agreement to hold internationally monitored elections this year, according to the Washington Post .
Despite this agreement, the country's supreme court, which Maduro controls, ruled that his top challenger, Machado, was ineligible to run. Machado had won a primary among the opposition with more than 92% of the vote.
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Maduro has received congratulatory messages from a handful of authoritarian leaders around the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his "warmest congratulations."
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