Earlier in the day, Antonio Mugica, CEO of the Smartmatic company which provides electronic voting systems worldwide, said that the results of the election were manipulated, and the actual turnout might differ by at least one million.
According to Venezuelan lawmaker Enrique Marquez, the Smartmatic's statement proved that the voting turnout data provided by the authorities were rigged, and it should be regarded as abuse of peoples' will and electoral fraud.
According to the National Electoral Council, a total of 41.53 percent of Venezuelan voters cast their ballots during the election to the Constituent Assembly, or 8.1 million people. The figures are disputed by the opposition which posted photos of empty polling stations throughout the election day, saying that over 90% of the voters did not attend.