Venezuela opposition leader to brief EU on disputed vote

Venezuela- Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia will brief EU foreign ministers by video link Thursday on claims that widespread fraud marred President Nicolas Maduro's reelection last month, the bloc's top diplomat said. "The situation in Venezuela is critical," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels. "That's why I invited Edmundo, the candidate that has presented results that show that Maduro has not won this election." Borrell said the EU was "very much worried by the situation of the leaders of the opposition" in Venezuela, who have seen team members "arrested and disappearing".

Venezuela's strongman leader Maduro has called for the arrest of Gonzalez Urrutia, not seen in public since a July 30 opposition march. Fellow opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, who Gonzalez Urrutia replaced on the ballot after she was barred from running, came out of hiding Wednesday to lead a protest against Maduro's reelection. No decision was expected at the informal EU meeting, but Borrell nonetheless said he hoped the 27 member states could reach a common position on the vote outcome. "I said before the meeting that I believe that clearly Maduro cannot be recognised as a legitimate winner of this presidential election, but let's see what the ministers have to say," Borrell said. The EU has already declared itself "extremely concerned" by the deepening political crisis in Venezuela. The country's CNE electoral council -- most of its members loyal to 61-year-old Maduro -- declared him the winner hours after polls closed, giving him 52 percent of ballots cast.

The opposition's own polling station-level records indicate that Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, won by a landslide. Several Latin American countries, the United States and the European Union have called on the CNE to release voting data that proves Maduro's reelection to a third, six-year term until 2031. The CNE has said it is unable to do so due to a computer hack. "We have to face the reality this evidence will not be provided -- there is no will to do so," Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told reporters in Brussels. "It is clear that if the data is not released, the election result cannot be recognised."

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