Venezuelan government escalates attacks on opposition’s primary election as turnout tops forecast

By REGINA GARCIA CANO
Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government escalated attacks Tuesday on the past weekend’s opposition primary to choose a challenger for President Nicolás Maduro next year. It says the voter turnout claimed by organizers was fraudulently inflated and amounts to a crime. Maduro’s government and its allies have spent months hindering opposition efforts to hold their primary election and have banned the now-apparent winner from being a candidate _ leaving the effectiveness of Sunday’s poll in doubt. The attacks on the legitimacy of the primary also could sow fear among voters already wary of government reprisals for participating in the polling.