Venezuela's Supreme Court says Maduro won the election

Venezuela's Supreme Court has backed President Nicolas Maduro's claims that he won last month's presidential election, and said votes published online showing he lost were falsified.

The decision supports Maduro's latest effort to quell protests and international criticism that erupted after the disputed July 28 vote, in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader was seeking a third, six-year term, AP reports.

The Supreme Court is filled with Maduro loyalists and has almost never ruled against the government.

The court's ruling, read out Thursday at an event attended by senior officials and foreign diplomats, came in response to a request by Maduro to review the vote total he claimed was compromised by a cyber attack. foreign, organized by hackers from North Macedonia.

The main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal the vote.

Thanks to a field game on election day, opposition volunteers managed to collect copies of vote counts from 80% of 30,000 polling stations nationwide, showing that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won by a margin of more than 2 to 1. The official tally sheets printed by each voting machine contain a QR code that makes it easy for anyone to verify the results and is almost impossible to duplicate.

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The Supreme Court's decision contradicts the findings of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center, who were invited to observe the election, and who both determined that the results announced by the authorities lacked credibility. 

Gonzalez was the only one of the 10 candidates who did not participate in the Supreme Court audit, a fact noted by the justices, who in their ruling accused him of trying to spread panic.

Multiple foreign governments, including the US, as well as some of Maduro's leftist allies, have called on authorities to release the full breakdown of the results.