VENEZUELA’S’s anti-imperialist government claimed victory on Sunday night after eight million citizens cast their votes “for peace.”

National Electoral Council (CNE) president Tibisay Lucena announced the turnout in elections to the new national constituent assembly just before midnight.

She said that almost 8.1 million people had voted — 41.5 per cent of registered voters — despite a boycott by the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) opposition.

That compared well with the 7.6 million votes that brought President Nicolas Maduro to power in 2013 and the 7.7 million that gave the Mud a two-thirds parliamentary majority in December 2015.

The new assembly will propose amendments to the constitution in a bid to resolve the country’s economic and political crisis.

Voter Jaime Aguilera told Aporrea TV: “I voted for peace and for the well-being and the prosperity and the independence of Venezuela,” sentiments echoed by David Santaella and Mary Isabel Fernandez at the same polling station.

The Mud accused the CNE of inflating the figures, echoing accusations it received when the right-wing alliance held an unofficial referendum on July 16 against the convening of the new constitutional assembly proposed by Mr Maduro.

The unelected European Commission joined the US yesterday in casting aspersions on legitimacy of Sunday’s election. Spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said an assembly “elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances cannot be part of the solution.”

She claimed the vote “has increased division and will further delegitimise Venezuela’s democratically elected institutions.”

Ms Andreeva added that EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was working on a “joint response” from the 28-nation bloc.

On Sunday the US State Department condemned the “imposed” election and threatened sanctions on all 545 assembly members. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the assembly an attempt to undermine the authority of the Mud-controlled parliament.

She threatened “strong and swift actions against the architects of authoritarianism in Venezuela, including those who participate in the national constituent assembly.”

And Ms Nauert blamed the government for violence after 10 more people died in opposition riots on Sunday aimed at scaring voters away from the polls.

A convoy of police and Bolivarian National Guard troops was attacked with a remotely detonated bomb in Altamira Square in the east of Caracas, a Mud stronghold.

A Morning Star source in Venezuela said six officers were injured with burns, three seriously. In a video of the incident, onlookers can be heard cheering and applauding the terrorist act.

The latest bloodshed brought the death toll from four months of regime-change violence to at least 123.