Caracas: Venezuela's National Electoral Council has said that it would audit votes cast in weekend presidential elections after an opposition challenge to the victory accorded President-elect Nicolas Maduro.
Council president Tibisay Lucena said yesterday the expanded audit would encompass all the ballot boxes not reviewed on election day, with about two-thirds of them selected as a random sample.
"Under no circumstance should this be interpreted as a vote count of any kind," she said.
Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles immediately went on television and said his campaign accepted the decision of the election council, thereby defusing for now a standoff with Maduro, who is to be inaugurated as president today.