Turnout figures in Venezuela’s constituent assembly election were inflated by at least 1m votes, according to a company that has worked with the country on its voting system since 2004.

“We know, without any doubt, that the turnout of the recent election for a national constituent assembly was manipulated,” Antonio Mugica, the chief executive of Smartmatic, said in London.

Mugica said Smartmatic, which has provided electronic voting technology for elections around the world, was able to detect the overstated officially announced turnout because of Venezuela’s automated election system.

“We estimate the difference between the actual participation and the one announced by authorities is at least 1m votes,” he said.



Mugica declined to directly answer whether the manipulated turnout numbers changed the result of the election.

Venezuelan electoral authorities and opponents of Nicolás Maduro’s ruling socialists have clashed over turnout figures in Sunday’s vote for an assembly to write a new constitution and give the party greater powers.

The electoral council president, Tibisay Lucena, put the turnout at 41.53%, or 8,089,320 people, but members of the opposition said they believed between 2 million and 3 million people had voted and one well-respected independent analysis put the number at 3.6 million.



Mugica said the authorities in Venezuela would likely not be sympathetic to his comments and that he had not yet passed the evidence to the Venezuela’s electoral council.

Quick Guide What's behind the Venezuelan crisis? Show Behind the crisis A cratering economy and acute shortages of medicine and food, coupled with rising anger at increasingly authoritarian government have contributed to the crisis. The IMF has predicted that unemployment will surpass 25% this year, as the country suffers a third year of recession. A cratering economy and acute shortages of medicine and food, coupled with rising anger at increasingly authoritarian government have contributed to the crisis. The IMF has predicted that unemployment will surpass 25% this year, as the country suffers a third year of recession. Political turmoil The president Nicolas Maduro won a general election in 2013, on a platform of continuing his predecessor Hugo Chávez's socialist policies of using the country's oil riches to reduce inequality and lift people out of poverty, but falling oil prices have forced the government to curtail social programmes. The president Nicolas Maduro won a general election in 2013, on a platform of continuing his predecessor Hugo Chávez's socialist policies of using the country's oil riches to reduce inequality and lift people out of poverty, but falling oil prices have forced the government to curtail social programmes. Recent protests Recent protest have been sparked by a court decision – later overturned – to strip the opposition-controlled national assembly of powers, and a 15-year ban from public office imposed on opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Recent protest have been sparked by a court decision – later overturned – to strip the opposition-controlled national assembly of powers, and a 15-year ban from public office imposed on opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

The winners among the 5,500 ruling-party candidates running for seats in the constituent assembly will have the task of rewriting the country’s constitution and will have more powers than other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

Maduro and his closest allies have vowed to use the assembly to jail key opposition leaders, remove the country’s outspoken chief prosecutor from her post and strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity.

Julio Borges, the president of the opposition-controlled national assembly, said lawmakers will ask the nation’s chief prosecutor to investigate electoral commission members for potential crimes.

“People with more than 10 years managing the electoral process in Venezuela say with all certainty[and] with hard data from their own servers that the announced result was crooked,” Borges said.

The vote was boycotted by the opposition and has been criticised around the world as an assault on democratic freedoms.

The European Union condemned “the excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces” and said it had serious doubts whether the election could be recognised.

On Tuesday two of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leaders were taken into custody after they called for protests against the vote.

Security officials led the raids after a court ruled that Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma had violated the terms of their house arrests.

The US state department said the detentions were further evidence that Maduro “is not willing to respect fundamental human rights”.



More than 121 people have been killed in Venezuela since 1 April, when widespread protests began against the government. According to the prosecutor’s office, 16 died on Sunday.

Reuters contributed to this story