VENEZUELA’S electoral authority challenged yesterday ballot-rigging claims by a British voting machine firm.

On Wednesday morning London-based Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica told a press conference that the turnout figures for Sunday’s election to a new constitutional reform body had been “tampered with.”

But Mr Mugica admitted his company, owned by former government minister Baron Mark Malloch-Brown, had not reported its concerns to the National Electoral Council (CNE) or other authorities.

At the first meeting of the 545-seat National Constituent Assembly on Wednesday night, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the CNE to conduct an audit of 100 per cent of the ballots cast and “report it to the nation.”

CNE president Tibisay Lucena said Mr Mugica was not qualified to give such an “unprecedented opinion.”

She said Smartmatic’s “only role in the electoral process was to provide certain services and technical support which do not determine the results.

“A company located outside the country does not guarantee the transparency and credibility of the Venezuelan electoral system,” she added.

Ms Lucena said Mr Mugica’s claims came “in a context of permanent aggression, initiated two weeks ago against the Venezuelan electoral authority” by the US government.

She was among the 13 government officials Washington slapped sanctions on last week as a warning against going ahead with the elections.

Ms Lucena said the US sanctions also affected other electoral services providers — including blocking their overseas accounts.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition boycotted the election and organised street blockades to prevent voters reaching the polling stations.

Ms Lucena said nearly 200 polling stations were attacked, some with grenades and rifle fire, and 181 voting machines were burned. The CNE has been under cyber-attack since Sunday, she said.

On Wednesday speaker of the Mud-dominated National Assembly Julio Borges urged anti-Maduro attorney-general Luisa Ortega to investigate CNE officials.

“They are going to install a fraudulent constitutional assembly,” he said.

The Mud and Washington claim the new assembly was unconstitutionally convened, intended to usurp the National Assembly’s powers and usher in Cuban-style socialism.

But whatever amendments it proposes will have to be approved by a national referendum.