Venezuela's Maduro asks top court to audit the presidential election, but observers cry foul

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday asked Venezuela’s high court to conduct an audit of the presidential election after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory, drawing criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review.

Maduro told reporters that the ruling party is also ready to show all the vote tally sheets from Sunday's election.

“I throw myself before justice,” he said outside the Supreme Tribunal of Justice headquarters in the capital, 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 court is closely aligned with his government; the court's justices are proposed by federal officials and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers.

The Carter Center, which sent a delegation to Venezuela to monitor the election, criticized Maduro's audit request, saying the court would not 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, who led the delegation. “This is not an independent assessment.”

The Atlanta-based group said Tuesday night that it was unable to verify the announced results and criticized what it called a “complete lack of transparency” in declaring Maduro the winner. Venezuela’s electoral authorities allowed the Carter Center to send 17 observers.

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.

Maduro insisted to reporters that there had been a plot against his government and that the electoral system was hacked. Asked later on during a news conference why electoral authorities have not released detailed vote counts, Maduro said the National Electoral Council has come under attack, including cyber-attacks.

“Engineers are fighting right now” to solve those attacks, he said without elaborating.

The government presented some videos that the president said showed people attacking and torching some electoral offices. The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the images.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said more than 1,000 people related to some of those attacks have been arrested.

Pressure has been building on the president since the election. The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to his United Socialist Party of Venezuela, has yet to release any results broken down by voting machine, which it did in past elections.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a close Maduro ally, joined other foreign leaders Wednesday in urging him to release detailed vote counts.

“The serious doubts that have arisen around the Venezuelan electoral process can lead its people to a deep violent polarization with serious consequences of permanent division,” Petro said on the social platform X.

“I invite the Venezuelan government to allow the elections to end in peace, allowing a transparent vote count, with the counting of votes, and with the supervision of all the political forces of its country and professional international supervision,” he added.

Petro proposed that Maduro’s government and the opposition reach an agreement “that allows for the maximum respect of the (political) force that has lost the elections.” The agreement, he said, could be submitted to the United Nations Security Council.

His comments came a day after another ally, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, along with U.S. President Joe Biden, called for the “immediate release of full, transparent, and detailed voting data at the polling station level.”

Brazil’s presidential office refused to comment Wednesday on whether an audit by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice would amount to an independent verification. Instead, it pointed to a Monday statement from the Ministry for Foreign Relations saying the government awaits “the publication by the National Electoral Council of data broken down by polling station, an indispensable step for the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the election result.”

Lula said of Maduro on Tuesday that “the more transparency there is, the greater his chance of having peace to govern Venezuela.”

The Organization of American States convened for an extraordinary session Wednesday, but members were unable to reach a consensus on a resolution to pressure Venezuelan authorities to “immediately” publish the granular results and verify them in the presence of international observers. Seventeen nations voted in favor of the resolution, one short of the threshold required for passage. Eleven abstained, and five were absent.

According to Machado, the opposition leader, the vote tallies show González received roughly 6.2 million votes compared with 2.7 million for Maduro. That is widely different from the electoral council's report that Maduro received 5.1 million votes, against more than 4.4 million for González.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into free fall after Maduro took the helm in 2013. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led to social unrest and mass emigration.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history. Many have settled in Colombia.

Speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Wednesday, the European Union's foreign affairs chief said the bloc won't recognize Maduro’s claim of electoral victory without independent verification of voting records.

“They should have been provided immediately, as in any democratic electoral process,” Josep Borrell said.

Within hours of the electoral council saying Maduro had won, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Caracas and other cities. The protests, which continued into Tuesday, turned violent at times, and law enforcement responded with tear gas and rubber pellets.

The Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal said 11 people, including two minors, were killed in election-related unrest.

Maduro’s closest ruling party allies quickly came to his defense. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez — his chief negotiator in dialogues with the U.S. and the opposition — insisted Maduro was the indisputable winner and called his opponents violent fascists. He called for Machado and González to be arrested.

Machado and González urged their supporters to remain calm.

“I ask Venezuelans to continue in peace, demanding that the result be respected and the tally sheets be published,” González said on X. “This victory, which belongs to all of us, will unite us and reconcile us as a nation.”

Salomon reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Ella Joyner in Brussels and Eleonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro contributed.

Homes cover a hill in the Junquito neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after the country's disputed presidential election. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

A defaced mural of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez covers a wall on the side of a highway, next to historic Venezuelan national heroes, following protests against the official election results declaring Chavez's protege President Nicolas Maduro the winner, in Valencia, Venezuela, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, two days after the vote. (AP Photo/Jacinto Oliveros)

President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a news conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A shopper walks inside a near-empty market in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after the disputed presidential election. Market organizers said that their usual truck shipments of produce have not arrived as planned and sales has increased. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

People line up to buy meat in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after the disputed presidential election. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Statues of birds cast shadows on a mural in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after the disputed presidential election. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a Bible during his news conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People check in for flights at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, near Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after the disputed presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People line up to buy chicken in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after the disputed presidential election. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Venezuelan Defense Minister Padrino Lopez stands by before a news conference with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after Maduro's disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sits in front of an image of Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar as he gives a news conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A man votes in the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A police patrol car sits parked outside Argentina's embassy where some members of Venezuela's opposition are seeking asylum inside, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after the contested presidential election. The Venezuelan government has asked its diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours after the government of Argentine President Javier Milei questioned the results of Sunday's presidential election that declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

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

Election workers prepare polling stations in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024. The presidential election is set for July 28.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Election workers prepare polling stations in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024. The presidential election is set for July 28. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People line up to vote in presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blows a kiss next to his wife Cilia Flores, left, at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shakes hands with Supreme Court justices upon arrival to the Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds up a booklet with his name on it as he speaks to the press at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

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

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)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro flashes a victory sign as he holds hands with his wife Cilia Flores at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. At right, second from the bottom is Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. At left, top, is National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro waves after speaking to the press at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

The sun shines onto buildings in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, two days after the country's disputed presidential election. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Members of the presidential guard wave flags from the regiment's headquarters during a rally by government supporters in defense of President Nicolas Maduro's reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Government supporters rally in defense of President Nicolas Maduro's reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

President Nicolas Maduro gestures to supporters during a speech from the presidential palace in defense of his reelection, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez leads a demonstration against the official election results that declared that President Nicolas Maduro won reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez ride atop a truck during a protest against official presidential election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, two days after the vote. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, right, stands with Colombian President Gustavo Petro after Petro arrived at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are gearing up to take the stage for Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia, where they’ll fight to sway 2024 election voters on the biggest stage in U.S. politics.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

Donald Trump’s inner circle says Kamala Harris has plenty of weaknesses she’ll have to defend on the debate stage, from inflation under President Joe Biden to the more liberal positions she took in her own 2020 presidential campaign before tacking toward the center.

Some Republicans are worried the freewheeling former president may miss some opportunities to put Harris on the defensive.

“Some of the biggest concerns of the American people remain the border crisis, the economy and inflation,” said Marc Short, who led debate preparations for Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, when he took Harris on in the the 2020 campaign.

“My advice would be to force real conversations on the border, economics and international affairs. And put her on the defensive on all the things she’s flip-flopped on,” Short said. “But I’m not sitting here with confidence that he’s going to be able to prosecute the case effectively.”

Short recalled how detailed Pence was in preparing for Harris, with days of “full dress rehearsals” against stand-ins who knew questions ahead of time and had prepared answers based on Harris’ positions and public statements. “That’s just not Trump’s style,” said Short. “You know, I would not anticipate a deeply substantive debate. But you never know.”

That’s according to a person familiar with his plans who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

The Republican former president, who’s from New York, is scheduled to visit the memorial site in lower Manhattan.

Biden and Harris are also set to visit as the president and vice president make stops at ground zero in New York for a ceremony at the National Sept. 11 Memorial plaza, the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon.

Trump is also set to visit the Pennsylvania site Wednesday but it wasn’t clear if he and Harris would come face-to-face on any of their stops as they mark the 23rd anniversary of the attacks the day after their debate.

— Michelle L. Price

Four years ago, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence met in the 2020 vice presidential debate in what was mostly a civil, substantive debate. But a tiny insect ended up stealing more of its fair share of the spotlight.

Marc Short, who led Pence’s debate prep, still shakes his head thinking about the fly that landed on Pence’s head during the debate, a stark image of the dark insect set against Pence’s white hair.

“On the actual substance you we were very pleased with Pence’s answers back and forth in that debate,” Short said. Unfortunately, he added, “a lot of the after coverage was focused on the fly.”

Indeed, it became an immediate social media sensation, made its way into the ubiquitous takeaway analysis pieces that every major news outlet produces and was part of NBC’s Saturday Night Live “Cold Open” skit days later.

The lesson, Short said, is that candidates, no matter how much they prepare, cannot always control the conversation coming out of a debate.

“She just needs to be herself, and she will be fine,” South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn told reporters at a White House celebration for the South Carolina Gamecocks, the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball champs.

Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said he was confident Harris will show herself to be more presidential than former President Donald Trump.

“Listen, I think if the vice president is herself, she’s going to be fantastic,” said Harrison, another South Carolinian who attended the White House ceremony. “She’s going to be presidential, and we know Donald Trump is going to do what Donald Trump does.”

If he wins in November, Trump, who’s 78, will be the oldest person ever elected to the presidency. And a new Pew Research Center poll finds that about half of voters think his age will hurt his candidacy. Only 3% of voters think his age will help him, and the rest say it won’t make a difference.

The results are the opposite for Harris, who at 59 is nearly two decades younger than her opponent. About half say her age will help her, while only 3% say it will hurt her.

With Harris as the Democratic candidate, Trump may have lost an advantage over President Joe Biden – the perception that he’s more mentally prepared for the job. About 6 in 10 voters say the phrase “mentally sharp” describes Harris very or fairly well, while about half say that about Trump. Back in July, when Biden was still his opponent, about 6 in 10 voters said Trump was “mentally sharp,” while only about one-quarter said the same of Biden.

Harris’s candidacy is historic – if elected, she’d be the first woman president, as well as the first Asian American and first Black woman president. Voters are more likely to think those identities will help her than hurt her at the ballot box this fall, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center.

About 4 in 10 voters think Harris’s Asian and Black identity will help her in November, and a similar share think the same about her identity as a woman. They’re more likely to see her gender as a liability than her race: About 3 in 10 say the fact that Harris is a woman will hurt her in November, while about 3 in 10 say that about the fact that she is Asian and Black.

The voters who are most concerned that Harris’s race and gender will be a liability are her own supporters. About 4 in 10 Harris supporters, for instance, say the fact that Harris is a woman will hurt her with voters, compared to 16% of Trump supporters.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet face-to-face for the first time in a highly-anticipated debate Tuesday night. The two presidential candidates describe the state of the country in starkly different terms. Trump often paints a dark picture centered around issues such as immigration and high inflation, while Harris focuses on optimism for the future, promising that “we’re not going back.”

The first debate of the 2024 election in June — at which President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance ultimately forced him from the race — featured multiple false and misleading claims from both candidates and it’s likely that Tuesday’s match-up will include much of the same.

▶ Read more about claims made by the candidates

And both of them plan to say why the Democrat would be better than Republican Donald Trump.

Anthony Scaramucci was briefly the Trump White House’s communications director, while Olivia Troye was a homeland security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence and was involved in Trump’s coronavirus task force. The Harris campaign said both will speak out against Trump before the debate starts.

In a form of political judo, the Harris campaign has been trying to use Trump’s former aides against him, trying to show that those who know him best see him as unfit to return to the White House.

This year’s presidential race is a genuine contest of ideas between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump — with clear differences on taxes, abortion, immigration, global alliances, climate change and democracy itself.

Since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, Harris has pledged to chart a new way forward even as she’s embraced many of his ideas. She wants middle class tax cuts, tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations, a restoration of abortion rights and a government that aggressively addresses climate change, among other stances.

Seeking a return to the White House, Trump wants to accomplish much of what he couldn’t do during a term that was sidetracked by the global pandemic. The Republican wants the extension and expansion of his 2017 tax cuts, a massive increase in tariffs, more support for fossil fuels and a greater concentration of government power in the White House.

The two candidates have spelled out their ideas in speeches, advertisements and other venues. Many of their proposals lack specifics, making it difficult to judge exactly how they would translate their intentions into law or pay for them.

▶ Read more about where the candidates stand on issues

With early voting fast approaching, the rhetoric by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has turned more ominous with a pledge to prosecute anyone who “cheats” in the election in the same way he believes they did in 2020, when he falsely claimed he won and attacked those who stood by their accurate vote tallies.

He also told a gathering of police officers last Friday that they should “watch for the voter fraud,” an apparent attempt to enlist law enforcement that would be legally dubious.

Trump has contended, without providing evidence, that he lost the 2020 election only because of cheating by Democrats, election officials and other, unspecified forces.

On Saturday, Trump promised that this year those who cheat “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law” should he win in November. He said he was referencing everyone from election officials to attorneys, political staffers and donors.

▶ Read more about Trump’s rhetoric on the election

The debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump won’t have an audience, live microphones when candidates aren’t speaking, or written notes, according to rules ABC News, the host network, shared with both campaigns last month.

The parameters in place for the Tuesday night debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, a disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat that fueled his exit from the campaign.

It's the only debate that’s been firmly scheduled and could be the only time voters see Harris and Trump go head to head before the November general election.

▶ Read more about the rules for the Trump-Harris debate

In this combination photo, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during a debate, Oct. 7, 2020, in Salt Lake City, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a debate, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo)

The motorcade of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris passes a billboard in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, ahead of the presidential debate with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives on Air Force Two at Atlantic Aviation Philadelphia, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, near Philadelphia International Airport, ahead of the presidential debate with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Signage at the media filing center ahead of tomorrow's presidential debate between Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)