Maduro Makes Slight Concession to Demands for Transparency

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, the AP reports. 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 and says it has been unable to verify the results, criticized Maduro's audit request, saying the court would not provide an independent review. 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.