Protesters took to the streets across Venezuela on Tuesday, demanding that President Nicolas Maduro acknowledge he lost Sunday's election to the opposition, as a major international observer concluded the vote was undemocratic,
Reuters reports.
The protests, which the government denounced as an attempted "coup," began on Monday after the South American country's electoral authority declared that Maduro had won a third term with 51% of votes to extend a quarter-century of socialist rule.
The opposition, which considers the election body to be in the pocket of a dictatorial government, says its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had more than twice as many votes as Maduro based on the 90% of vote tallies it has been able to access.
At least 11 people have been killed in different parts of the country since the election in incidents related to the count or associated protests, according to rights group Foro Penal.
The U.S.-based Carter Center, which observed the vote, said in a statement late on Tuesday the election "did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic."
The electoral authority's failure to publish disaggregated results amounts to a "serious breach," it added, outlining what it determined to be a deeply flawed process from start to finish.
Many countries have called on Venezuela to make the vote tally public and U.S. sources said Washington was considering fresh sanctions on individuals linked to the election unless there was greater transparency.
