PANTS ON FIRE

Watchdogs: Venezuela Regime Lying About Election Turnout

Maduro officials claim more than 8M voted. Analysts say maybe half that.

Independent observers and opposition leaders say Venezuela’s top election authorities and President Nicolas Máduro are lying about suspiciously high voter turnout figures from Sunday’s turbulent election on a new constitutional assembly. “The people have delivered the constitutional assembly,” Máduro said on national television Sunday. “More than 8 million in the middle of threats.” But opposition members said their officials counted only about 2 or 3 million voters. An independent analysis conducted by a Venezuela public-opinion company and New York investment bank Torino Capital put the turnout at about 3.6 million. The U.S. and several other nations have said they would not recognize the results of the vote, and condemned the violence surrounding the election, in which at least 10 people were killed.