<p>As announced Wednesday, turnout figures for Venezuela&rsquo;s Sunday election were manipulated by at least 1 million votes. ;</p>
<p>This information comes from Smartmatic, a company that has been working with Venezuela on its voting system since 2004.  ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We know, without any doubt, that the turnout of the recent election for a National Constituent Assembly was manipulated,&rdquo; said Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica. &ldquo;We estimate the difference between the actual participation and the one announced by authorities is at least once million votes.&rdquo;</p>
<p>President Nicolas Maduro&#8217;s government claims over ;8 million people voted in support of a constituent assembly that would be tasked with rewriting the constitution in such a way as to ;formulize a one-party communist state and to extend and strengthen Maduro&rsquo;s power. ;</p>
<p><strong>There are three reasons why this is not possible.</strong></p>
<p>1. The consensus among analysts is that less than 4 million people showed up to vote.</p>
<p>2. Recent polls show that up to 85% of Venezuelans were against the assembly.</p>
<p>3. Maduro is very unpopular among voters. ;</p>
<p>Maduro was elected in 2013. By 2015, his party had lost 2 million voters. The most recent polls put Maduro&rsquo;s approval rating below 20%.</p>
<p>During the past two years, Venezuela has spiraled into economic collapse. With severe food and medicine shortages and triple-digit inflation, Venezuela&rsquo;s economy is currently ranked &ldquo;worst in the world.&rdquo;</p>
<p>On top of that is an authoritarian government that rejects the will of Congress and represses protests by killing and jailing participants. Such chaos has only contributed ;to drug trafficking and violent crime. ;</p>
<p>In other words, there is no way in hell the people of Venezuela would have voted to support Maduro&rsquo;s constituent assembly.</p>
<p>Maduro and his cronies know they have lost all public support. They also know they need the ;constituent assembly to avoid being kicked out of office.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this sort of behavior is what we have come to expect from Venezuela&rsquo;s corrupt government.</p>
<p>Without help from international organizations, &ldquo;the constituent assembly will quickly become all-powerful,&rdquo; warns ;<em>The Hill. ;</em></p>
<p>The US has responded to the fraudulent election by slapping sanctions on Maduro for &ldquo;seizing absolute power&rdquo; over the people of Venezuela. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll never know the extent of the fraud because internationally-recognized election observers were not allowed into the country to monitor the voting, and reporters were kept at a distance from polling sites,&rdquo; reports <em>The Hill. ;</em></p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> It is not often that you witness a country collapsing into anarchy. But that is what is ;happening now in Venezuela. ;</p>