Venezuela at a standstill as Maduro is declared winner but vote tallies have yet to be released

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela faced a political standstill Monday after both incumbent President Nicolás Maduro and the country's main opposition coalition claimed victory in Sunday's presidential election.

Maduro considers the results of the election a settled matter. But opposition candidate Edmundo González told a news conference Monday afternoon that his campaign has the proof it needs to show that he was the winner of the election.

González and opposition leader María Corina Machado told supporters gathered outside his campaign headquarters in Caracas that they have obtained more than 70% of the tally sheets from Sunday’s disputed election, and they show González ahead of Maduro.

The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to the ruling party, said Maduro secured 51% of the vote while González garnered 44%. The electoral body, however, did not release the tallies from any machine, promising early Monday only to do so in the “coming hours,” hampering the ability to verify the results.

In December, the last time Venezuelans were summoned to the polls, electoral authorities never released the tallies after claiming that more than 10 million voters cast ballots in a referendum over a territorial dispute with Guyana.

Here's what to know about Venezuela’s presidential election and what's next:

Venezuelans vote using electronic machines, which record votes and provide every voter a paper receipt that shows the candidate of their choice. Voters are supposed to deposit their receipt at ballot boxes before exiting the polls.

After polls close, each machine prints a tally sheet showing the candidates’ names and the votes they received.

But the ruling party wields tight control over the voting system, both through a loyal five-member electoral council and a network of longtime local party coordinators who get near unrestricted access to voting centers. Those coordinators, some of whom are responsible for handing out government benefits including subsidized food, have blocked representatives of opposition parties from entering voting centers as allowed by law to witness the voting process, vote counting and, crucially, to obtain a copy of the machines’ final tally sheet.

After Sunday’s results were announced, Machado said the margin of González’s victory was “overwhelming” based on voting tallies it had received from campaign representatives from about 40% of ballot boxes nationwide.

Hours later, National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso formally declared Maduro as the winner, but the electoral body's website was down, and it remained unclear when the tallies would be available. The lack of tallies prompted an independent group of electoral observers to publicly urge the entity to release them.

More than 9 million people cast ballots Sunday, according to figures released by Amoroso.

The number of eligible voters for this election was estimated to be around 17 million. Another 4 million Venezuelans are registered to vote, but they live abroad and many did not meet the requirements to register to cast ballots overseas.

Voters started lining up at some voting centers as early as Saturday evening across the country, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.

In the months leading up to the highly anticipated election, government supporters and opponents alike expressed a desire for government changes, often citing their deep discontent with a crisis-wrecked economy that does not allow them to afford food and other basic needs, pushing millions to emigrate.

A fair presidential election seemed like a possibility last year, when Maduro's government agreed to work with the U.S.-backed Unitary Platform coalition to improve electoral conditions. But hopes for a level playing field began fading days later, when authorities said the opposition’s October primary was against the law and later began issuing warrants and arresting human rights defenders, journalists and opposition members.

González, a former diplomat, appeared on the ballot because Venezuela's top court blocked the presidential candidacy of Machado, who swept the coalition's primary with more than 90% of support.

Thousands of opposition supporters had agreed to mobilize and assist voters throughout Election Day, and the González-Machado campaign was banking on their efforts to get people to the polls to vote as well as to deter government actors from intimidating or coercing voters.

Across the country, many of those supporters followed the campaign's instructions to remain at the polls long after they closed in hopes that their sheer presence could help minimize any ruling party efforts to deny opposition representatives access to the tally sheets.

A U.N.-backed panel investigating human rights violations in Venezuela earlier this year reported that the government had increased repression of critics and opponents ahead of the election, subjecting targets to detention, surveillance, threats, defamatory campaigns and arbitrary criminal proceedings.

The opposition's campaign early Monday asked voters to remain calm and avoid any violent demonstrations, but it did not offer any specific steps it will follow to demonstrate its claim to victory.

“The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” González said in his first remarks.

Later Monday, González said his campaign has the proof it needs to show that he was the winner of Sunday’s election.

González and Machado told reporters they have obtained more than 70% of tally sheets, and they show González ahead of Maduro.

“I speak to you with the calmness of the truth,” González said as dozens of supporters gathered outside campaign headquarters in the capital, Caracas. “I want to tell you… that the will expressed yesterday through your vote will be respected… We have in our hands the tally sheets that demonstrate our victory.”

As they spoke, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest what they said was an attempt by Maduro to steal the election.

In the streets near Caracas’ largest low-income neighborhood, Petare, demonstrators shouted against the government, and some, wearing masks, tore down campaign posters of Maduro hung on lampposts. Heavily armed security forces stood just a few blocks away from the protest.

“It’s going to fall. It’s going to fall. This government is going to fall!” shouted some of the protesters. Before Amoroso had announced results, some opposition supporters who believed González would be declared winner had begun shouting the well-known chat but in past tense.

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Protesters march and ride motorcycles as they demonstrate against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner, the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Supporters of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez gather outside his campaign headquarters after the polls closed for the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Voters line up outside a polling station during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Voters line up outside a polling station that reads in Spanish "Vote" during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Electoral officials tally votes after polls closed for presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, left, receives certification from the President of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Elvis Amoroso that he won the presidential election, at the CNE in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Russia’s Federal Security Service on Friday accused six British diplomats of spying and said a decision has been made to withdraw their accreditation.

Russian state TV quoted an official from the security service known as the FSB as saying that they will be expelled. The expulsions come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Washington for talks with President Joe Biden that will include Ukraine’s request to use Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.

Starmer said on his way to the U.S. that Britain does not “seek any conflict with Russia.” “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia could end this conflict straight away,” he told reporters.

“Ukraine has the right to self-defense and we’ve obviously been absolutely fully supportive of Ukraine’s right to self-defense — we’re providing training capability, as you know. But we don’t seek any conflict with Russia — that’s not our intention in the slightest,” he said.

The FSB said it received documents indicating that the diplomats were sent to Russia by a division of the U.K. Foreign Office “whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on our country,” and that they were involved in “intelligence-gathering and subversive activities.”

Based on these documents and “in response to numerous unfriendly steps by London,” the Russian Foreign Ministry withdrew the accreditation of the diplomats, the FSB said, without identifying them. It warned that if other diplomats are found to be carrying out “similar actions,” the agency “will demand early termination of their missions” to Russia.

Russian state TV said in a report that the six diplomats had met with independent media and rights groups that have been declared “foreign agents” — a label the Russian authorities have actively used against organizations and individuals critical of the Kremlin.

The British Embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. There was no immediate comment from Britain's Foreign Office.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in an online statement that “We fully agree with the assessments of the activities of the British so-called diplomats expressed by the Russian FSB. The British Embassy has gone far beyond the limits outlined by the Vienna Conventions." She said the diplomats were carrying out “subversive actions aimed at causing harm to our people.”

Expulsions of diplomats — both Western diplomats working in Russia and Russian diplomats working in Western countries — have become increasingly common since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian news outlet RBC counted last year that Western countries and Japan expelled a total 670 Russian diplomats between the beginning of 2022 and October 2023, while Moscow expelled 346 diplomats in response. According to RBC, it was more than in the previous 20 years combined.

In May the U.K. expelled Russia’s defense attaché in London, alleging he was an undeclared intelligence officer, and closed several Russian diplomatic properties in Britain that it said were being used for spying.

FILE - The British Embassy building, center, with the Russian Foreign Ministry building, second right, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

FILE - Birds fly with the British Embassy building at center in the background in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)