US recognises oppn candidate Gonzlez as winner of Venezuela's prez poll

The US government has recognised Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzlez as the winner of the South American country's presidential election, discrediting the results announced by electoral authorities who declared President Nicols Maduro the victor.

Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo Gonzlez Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday.

The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of Sunday's highly anticipated election, but the president's main challenger, Gonzlez, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have said they obtained more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed.

They said the release of the data on those tallies would prove Maduro lost.

The announcement from the US government came amid diplomatic effor