Venezuela’s court rejects appeal for vote recount

Venezuela’s Supreme Court has ruled out a recount of the country’s disputed presidential vote, saying there is no legal basis for the opposition’s push for a vote-by-vote recount.

The head of the country’s Supreme Court, Chief Justice Luisa Morales, said on Wednesday that manual vote counting was not possible, citing the country’s 1999 constitution that “eliminated the manual electoral process.”

“In Venezuela the electoral system is completely automated. Therefore, a manual count does not exist. Anyone who thought that could really happen has been deceived,” she said.

“The majority of those who are asking for a manual count know it and are clear about it. Elections are not audited ballot by ballot but through the system,” she added.

Socialist Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday. He won 50.7 percent of the vote against 49.1 percent for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, a difference of 235,000 ballots.

Capriles said he did not recognize the official results, claiming that there were more than 300,000 incidents from Sunday’s poll that would need to be examined.

Since the electoral authority declared Maduro the winner, the opposition has staged several violent protests, which has left at least seven people dead and over 60 others injured.

Capriles cancelled a planned protest march for Wednesday after Maduro vowed he would not allow the rally to go ahead.

On March 8, Maduro became Venezuela’s acting president, following the death of late President Hugo Chavez, who lost a two-year-long battle with cancer on March 5.

Maduro has promised to continue the socialist policies of the former leader.