Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro prepares to cast his vote at a polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 6, 2020. The elections to select the 277 deputies who will accede to the Venezuelan National Assembly for the period of 2021 to 2026 began in the early hours of Sunday.(Photo: Xinhua)

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday denounced members of the European Union's (EU) electoral observation mission who monitored voting last weekend as "spies," and accused them of looking to "stain" the regional elections on their preliminary report.

Local and regional elections enjoyed better conditions than during previous voting, the EU mission said on Tuesday, though they raised concerns about arbitrary bans on candidates for administrative reasons, delays in opening voting centers and "extended use of state resources in the campaign." 

"They looked to stain the electoral process [in a report] and they couldn't. A delegation of spies - they weren't observers - wandered freely around the country, spying on the country's social, economic and political life," Maduro said on state television.

The mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Voting last weekend was the first time in 15 years that the EU sent a mission to observe Venezuelan elections. The team included 1,000 observers who monitored voting in 22 out of 23 elections and the full report will be presented in two months.

In this election, opposition politicians contested votes for the first time since 2017. However, they were roundly beaten, picking up just three out of 23 governorships and 117 mayoral positions, with the ruling party winning 210 mayoral races.

"The European Union couldn't stain the electoral process, it was impeccable, beautiful," Maduro said.

Reuters