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Venezuela's president and election chief on Wednesday denied a report that voter turnout numbers were "manipulated" and inflated by at least one million for the controversial election to choose an assembly to rewrite the national constitution. The head of the National Election Council, Tibisay Lucena, said the claim by a British election-technology firm was "irresponsible," and she threatened to begin legal action against the company. "This is an uNPRecedented opinion from a firm whose only role in the electoral process is to provide certain services and technical support that has no bearing on the results," Lucena said. The head of British firm Smartmatic, Antonio Mugica, said in London Wednesday there is no question in his mind that the total reported vote was false. He did not, however, say whether vote tampering altered the outcome of Sunday's balloting. "Based on the robustness of our system, we know without any doubt that the turnout of the recent election for a National Constituent Assembly was manipulated," Mugica said. "We estimate the difference between the actual participation and the one announced by authorities was at least one million." President Nicolas Maduro said in televised remarks that Mugica was pressured by the United States and Britain. He also repeated the government's stance that eight million people voted, adding that the turnout would have been 10 million if others had not been blocked by protesters. | 
