Naharnet

Opposition to Formally Contest Venezuela Poll Result

Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles said Wednesday that his campaign will formally contest the official results of his country's presidential elections in a Supreme Court filing.

Capriles told a May Day rally the formal challenge would be presented to the top court on Thursday. President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the April 14 vote to replace the late Hugo Chavez as Venezuela's leader.

"We are going to exhaust all the internal fora because we have no doubt that this case is going to wind up before the international community. This case is going to end up going to every country where there is a democracy," he said.

Capriles, who has accused Maduro of stealing the election, has rejected an audit of the vote by the National Electoral Council as a "farce" after it refused to include physical voting records in the review.

He had until Monday to file suit with the Supreme Court contesting the results, which gave leftist firebrand Chavez's hand-picked successor Maduro victory by a 1.5 percent margin.

Source: Agence France Presse


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