Little-known sheets of paper are essential for declaring victory in Venezuela’s elections

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela was tense on Tuesday as a starter President Nicolás Maduro and the country’s main opposition coalition claimed to have won Sunday’s presidential elections.

The national electoral authority proclaimed Maduro the winner. The opposition represented by Edmundo González claimed to have evidence to the contrary.

Electoral authorities installed more than 30,000 voting machines and, by law, the opposition had the right to have representatives in all voting centers. But not everyone was allowed to participate on Sunday or they were expelled before the polls closed.

After the polls close, Venezuela’s electronic voting machines can print spreadsheets tallying all the votes counted. Experts say the best way to clarify the dispute is to release these sheets. But the National Electoral Council did not do so.

Here’s a look at what was said and what is known:

Record sheets

The main argument is reaching the sheets. In case of any dispute, one way to resolve it is to compare the results that the government has with those of the opposition parties.

The electronic machines provide each voter with a paper receipt that shows which candidate they chose. Voters must deposit their receipts at the polls before leaving the polls.

After the polls close, each machine prints a bulletin showing the names of the candidates and the votes received by each one. Party representatives present at polling places during election day receive one copy of the ballot paper and electoral authorities keep another.

But the ruling party exercises tight control over the voting system, both through a loyal five-member electoral council and a network of longtime local party coordinators who have almost unfettered access to voting centers. These coordinators, some of whom are responsible for distributing government benefits, including subsidized food, prevented representatives of opposition parties from entering voting centers, as permitted by law, to witness the voting process, vote counting and , mainly, to obtain a copy of the machines. ‘ final spreadsheets.

What numbers did election authorities release?

On its website, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council traditionally publishes the vote count for each machine. Never posted images of the notices.

Council president Elvis Amoroso said on Monday that Maduro received 51.2% of the vote, or more than 5.1 million votes. González won 44%, or more than 4.4 million votes, he said.

Amoroso said the other 8 presidential candidates received a combined total of 4% or more than 462,000 votes.

He said those numbers were based on a review of 80% of records. He didn’t show the sheets.

What numbers did the opposition share?

Opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Monday that González got more than 6.2 million votes and Maduro got more than 2.7 million votes.

Machado did not disclose the totals of the other eight candidates.

She said those numbers were based on a review of 73.2% of records. She did not show any spreadsheets, but directed voters to a website where they can use their ID number to search for an image of the spreadsheet that matches the machine where they voted.

Who has access to the counts?

The National Electoral Council is under no obligation to publish the notices on its website – which has been offline since Monday. But the opposition, electoral experts and some foreign governments who dispute the official results are calling for the release of the results.

On Monday, Machado announced that the opposition had created a searchable website with images of all the notices that opposition electoral representatives were able to obtain. Machado said the information is also being shared with the international community.