Maduro claims vote win, opposition vows protests

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory on July 31 in an internationally criticized election for an assembly to rewrite the constitution, but the opposition cried fraud and vowed to keep protesting despite a deadly crackdown.

Ten people were killed in a wave of bloodshed that swept Venezuela July 30 as Maduro defied an opposition boycott and international condemnation -- including the threat of new U.S. sanctions -- to hold elections for a powerful new "Constituent Assembly."

Protesters attacked polling stations and barricaded streets around the country, drawing a bloody response from security forces, who opened fire with live ammunition in some cases.

Despite the boycott and the unrest, the head of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena -- one of 13 Maduro allies already slapped with sanctions by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration -- said there had been "extraordinary turnout" of more than eight million voters, 41.5 percent of the electorate.

Dressed in bright red, his fist clenched and face beaming, Maduro hailed it as a win in a speech to hundreds of cheering supporters in central Caracas.

"It is the biggest vote the revolution has ever scored in its 18-year history," he said, referring to the year his late mentor, Hugo Chavez, came to power.

"What the hell do we care what Trump says?"

Members of the new assembly will include his wife Cilia Flores, his pugnacious right-hand man Diosdado Cabello, and other staunch allies.

The socialist president is gambling his four-year rule on the 545-member assembly, which will be empowered to dissolve the opposition-controlled congress and rewrite the constitution.

In his speech, he encouraged the assembly to scrap...