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Venezuelan Opposition Leaders Boycott Audit NewsMax.com WiresCARACAS, Venezuela – Opposition leaders refused Wednesday to participate in an audit of a referendum that failed to oust Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, dealing a setback to international efforts to dispel allegations of vote-rigging and prevent more upheaval in the politically divided country. Opposition leaders claimed they had unearthed new evidence of fraud, which they insisted the audit, proposed by former President Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States, would fail to detect. Story Continues Below "Under these conditions, we won't accept this audit," said anti-Chavez lawmaker Nelson Rampersad after a meeting between opposition leaders, Carter and OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria. There was no immediate comment from Carter and Gaviria, who had planned to be witnesses Wednesday as local election officials checked a random sampling of results from 150 voting stations, a rare follow-up move to an election they have already said looked clean. "We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the electoral process nor the accuracy of the referendum results," Carter asserted at a news conference Tuesday. Carter and Gaviria have been working for two years to find a solution to the often bloody political crisis that has gripped Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporting nation. Rampersad claimed touch-screen voting machines in at least 500 polling sites produced the exact same number of "yes" votes in favor of ousting Chavez, a result he said was statistically impossible. He said the supposed finding indicated the machines were rigged to impose a ceiling on "yes" votes. The audit intended to compare electronic and paper ballots. But Rampersad said opponents were concerned the paper ballots, which have been under the care of Venezuela's military, might have been tampered with since Sunday's votes. He said the opposition wanted the audit to include an examination of the internal workings of the machines' software.
See further details in earlier report.
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