Venezuela's Unitary Platform claims to have evidence that González wins presidency over Maduro

Venezuela's opposition party claimed July 29 that Edmundo González has won the July 28 presidential election with 69.5% of votes, and with 73.2% of the ballots counted.

The announcement followed news earlier in the day that the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared current President Nicolás Maduro the winner with 51.2% of 80% of the votes counted.

While the election results have led to growing protests and some violence, there has so far been no impact on Venezuela's oil and gas production or refining operations.

However, at stake is the future of Venezuela's energy industry, as the country has proven oil reserves of 303 billion barrels and 200 Tcf of natural gas.

"Even with the remaining 30%, if Maduro had 100% of the votes, it would not be enough to get González's vote because the difference was overwhelming in all the states, in all the social sectors, in the whole country," said Maria Corina Machado in a July 29 press conference at the campaign headquarters of the so-called Unitary Platform in Caracas.

Machado was for some time running against Maduro but was eventually barred from the election by the ruling administration.

Regarding the protests that are taking place throughout the country, González said that "we understand the indignation, but we ask for calm and firmness and we will fight so that the will of the citizens be expressed in the voting tables is respected."

Machado said the voting records will be available to in web page that will be available late July 29.

"These electoral records are proof that we won the elections, and they are already being consulted by leaders around the world," Machado said.

Machado, among other opposition leaders, was linked to an alleged cyber-attack on the CNE by Public Prosecutor Office head Tarek William Saab.

Machado said that armed groups were in the vicinity of the Argentina embassy, where several of her collaborators have been in asylum since June.

"The government has the obligation to respect asylum," Machado said.

The US is calling for the immediate publication of detailed precinct-level polling to verify the election outcome, a senior Biden administration official said July 29.

The US is not planning to cancel the company-specific licenses it has given to Chevron and other oil companies to allow them to operate in Venezuela, despite widespread questions about Maduro's claims that he won the election.

"We are obviously in the process of evaluating these election results and we have to see where this comes out," a second senior Biden administration official told reporters. "I can't get into hypotheticals with respect to what our overall licensing policy will be," the official said.