Computer glitches reportedly are responsible for delaying this weekend's scheduled elections in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan supreme court on Thursday postponed the elections, a day after the U.S. Embassy in Caracas protested how the country's secret police treated two Americans trying to assist the South American country in solving the technical problems.
The two men work for Election System & Software and were trying to fix the computer problems when they were forced to seek refuge in the embassy after reportedly being subjected physical abuse and threats.
President Hugo Chavez and the head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council had earlier blamed the Omaha, Nebraska-based company for the technical problems, saying it was part of an overall plan to "destabilize" the country's electoral process.
"This is one of the worst situations we've had to subject our people to," ES&S Vice President John Groh told the Associated Press.
Venezuelans were set to vote on 6,200 public offices including president, congressmen, governors, mayors, and local councilmen. But problems with computer software needed to tabulate votes and register more than 36,000 candidates jeopardized the vote.
Ivan Rincon, president of the supreme court, said the "credibility and transparency" of the process could not be guaranteed, according to reports from the British Broadcasting Corp.
The decision in Venezuela comes at a critical time for its neighbor Peru, which is having its own controversy surrounding upcoming elections.
Popular opposition candidate Alejandro Toledo is demanding that president Alberto Fujimori postpone elections in that country until international moderators can validate the vote-tallying process in that country. That may mean more work for ES&S.
