Spain to ignore lower house's recognition of Venezuelan opposition

By Eduardo Baptista and Inti Landauro

BEIJING/MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government will not take into account a parliamentary vote to recognise Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as winner of a disputed presidential election, the premier said.

With Gonzalez taking refuge in Spain since Sunday, a majority of 177 lawmakers of various parties in the 350-seat lower house passed a symbolic motion on Wednesday saying he won the July 28 vote awarded to incumbent President Nicolas Maduro.

Following the July election, the Venezuelan opposition has published vote tallies and said the 75-year-old Gonzalez won a resounding victory. But the national election board declared Maduro the victor and he has shrugged off international criticism as a right-wing plot.

The U.S., Argentina and Peru have recognised Gonzalez as president-elect.

On a visit to China, Sanchez said Madrid's position - demanding the release of detailed vote tallies in the presence of an EU mediator while not yet recognising either Maduro or Gonzalez as winner - was clear and would not change.

"We have asked for the publication of the acts, we have not recognised the victory of Nicolas Maduro, and we do something very important, work for unity in the European Union, so that unity of the European Union allows us to have a margin of mediation from here to the end of the year," he told reporters in the city of Kunshan hours before the lower house voted.

On Tuesday evening, Venezuelan exiles gathered outside the Spanish parliament as lawmakers began debating the motion from the main opposition People's Party.

After Wednesday's vote, some lawmakers rose to applaud the gallery where several Venezuelan opposition leaders stood.

Gonzalez has not appeared publicly since landing in Spain.

"I believe that asylum is still a gesture of humanity, a civil humanitarian commitment of the Spanish society, and by extension of its government, with people who unfortunately are suffering persecution and repression," Sanchez said.

Venezuelan opposition leader Antonio Ledezma, who lives in Spain, told Reuters that Gonzalez's flight would strengthen their cause. "Edmundo will be free, he will not be confined within four walls, as in Venezuela, and he will be able to lead the struggle for Venezuela's freedom by heading the diaspora."

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing and Inti Landauro and Belen Carreno in Madrid; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)