Biden says he supports new elections in Venezuela following disputed polls

​​​​​​​By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden endorsed on Thursday new elections in Venezuela following the Latin American nation's disputed July 28 polls.

Biden was asked if he supports new elections, saying in brief remarks to reporters before he departed the White House: "I do." Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva earlier Thursday also proposed new polls.

The appeals came as the White House said it believes "through a number of ways, and a number of sources" that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez secured more votes than President Nicolas Maduro and it urged Maduro to release voter data.

"The fact that Mr. Maduro won't release that data, certainly, I think, speaks to what must be his concern about the results that that would transparently display," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. "We want to see the data."

The nation's election authority named Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the polls, but has refrained from releasing voter data amid opposition claims that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, was the true victor.

Opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Gonzalez, who have gone into hiding, citing security reasons, are calling on Venezuelans to take to the streets Aug. 17 to demand the government recognize Gonzalez as the winner of the elections.

Although Maduro was proclaimed president with 52% of the vote against 43% for Gonzalez, the National Electoral Council (CNE) has not published the details of the vote count, alleging a hack of the voting system.

The opposition has said that according to more than 80% of vote tallies to which it had access to, Maduro’s rival in the disputed elections won with more than 67% of the vote.

A panel of UN experts said Tuesday that the CNE "fell short of the basic transparency and integrity measures that are essential to holding credible elections."

The four-member team of experts, dispatched by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, spent more than one month in Caracas as one of the few independent observers invited by the Maduro government.

The experts said in their interim report that the result management process "did not follow national legal and regulatory provisions, and all stipulated deadlines were missed.”

"In the experience of the panel, the announcement of an election outcome without the publication of its details or the release of tabulated results to candidates has no precedent in contemporary democratic elections,” they said.

Doubts about the transparency of the electoral process have generated widespread protests across the country that have left 25 people dead, at least 192 injured and more than 2,000 arrested. Maduro has pledged to crack down on demonstrations with an "iron fist."

The president has blamed the opposition and accused Gonzalez and Machado of encouraging a "coup d'état" and a “civil war” in the country.

"This is not the first time we have faced what we are facing today. There is an attempt to impose a coup d'état in Venezuela once again," said Maduro. "Where is Mr. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia? Why did he flee? Why does he not show his face? Where is the greatest fascist, Mrs. Machado, who ordered to kill, who ordered to assassinate?" he added.