<p class="title">Venezuela's elections council said on Sunday that a fire over the weekend destroyed most of the voting machines stored in its main warehouse in the capital, Caracas, potentially complicating parliamentary elections scheduled for this year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nearly 50,000 voting machines and almost 600 computers went up in flames as a result of the fire that broke out on Saturday, said elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There was little that could be rescued," Lucena said in a statement broadcast on state television.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If there are small groups (of people) who think that this will end our constitutionally established electoral processes, they are very wrong."</p>.<p class="bodytext">She did not elaborate on how many voting machines were still available for use, or how the incident would affect future elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lucena said she had asked state prosecutors to look into the cause of the blaze, which did not cause any injuries.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The South American country's elections have come under heavy criticism since President Nicolas Maduro's 2018 re-election was widely dismissed as rigged in his favor, leading dozens of governments around the world to disavow his government in 2019.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Smartmatic, the company that manufactures the equipment, halted its Venezuelan operations in 2017 after a disputed referendum to create a parliamentary superbody known as the Constituent Assembly. The firm said the results of that vote had been inflated by at least 1 million votes in favor of the government.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Venezuela holds elections this year for parliament, which is currently controlled by the opposition. Maduro's adversaries are demanding that the country instead hold a new presidential election, and have not yet said whether they will participate in the legislative election. A date for that vote has not been set.</p>
<p class="title">Venezuela's elections council said on Sunday that a fire over the weekend destroyed most of the voting machines stored in its main warehouse in the capital, Caracas, potentially complicating parliamentary elections scheduled for this year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nearly 50,000 voting machines and almost 600 computers went up in flames as a result of the fire that broke out on Saturday, said elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There was little that could be rescued," Lucena said in a statement broadcast on state television.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If there are small groups (of people) who think that this will end our constitutionally established electoral processes, they are very wrong."</p>.<p class="bodytext">She did not elaborate on how many voting machines were still available for use, or how the incident would affect future elections.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lucena said she had asked state prosecutors to look into the cause of the blaze, which did not cause any injuries.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The South American country's elections have come under heavy criticism since President Nicolas Maduro's 2018 re-election was widely dismissed as rigged in his favor, leading dozens of governments around the world to disavow his government in 2019.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Smartmatic, the company that manufactures the equipment, halted its Venezuelan operations in 2017 after a disputed referendum to create a parliamentary superbody known as the Constituent Assembly. The firm said the results of that vote had been inflated by at least 1 million votes in favor of the government.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Venezuela holds elections this year for parliament, which is currently controlled by the opposition. Maduro's adversaries are demanding that the country instead hold a new presidential election, and have not yet said whether they will participate in the legislative election. A date for that vote has not been set.</p>