International observers audited the voting machines used in the recall vote won by President Hugo Chávez and found no evidence of fraud or tampering.

BY STEVEN DUDLEY

CARACAS - After finishing an audit of last Sunday's recall referendum in Venezuela, international observers said they found no evidence of fraud or tampering with the machines that Venezuelans used to vote overwhelmingly in favor of President Hugo Chávez finishing out his presidential mandate.

''We consider the results announced by the National Electoral Council compatible with our own checks,'' said the secretary general of the Organization of American States, César Gaviria, referring to the body that oversaw the voting.

The OAS, along with the Atlanta-based Carter Center, monitored the referendum process for months, including Sunday's vote and last week's audit of 150 randomly selected polling stations.

On the day of the referendum, both international groups tabulated ''quick counts'' -- random and representative samples from around the country -- that coincided with results announced by the National Electoral Council that Chávez had won 59 percent of the 10 million votes cast.

Chávez has promised to deliver a ''revolution'' to this oil-rich country, a country in which more than 50 percent of the population lives in poverty.

He has governed Venezuela with wide popular support since 1998, and this is the third general election he has won.

But following Chávez's landslide victory, opposition groups -- who had participated in many aspects of the recall including a preelection audit of the machines that most Venezuelans used to vote -- levied multiple charges that the recall was rigged. They pointed to anomalies in the results from several polling stations as well as exit polls by Venezuelan observers sympathetic to them that showed the opposition had won the recall by a wide margin.

These same groups refused to participate in last week's audit, saying they were compiling a complete list of the allegations.

Gaviria said the OAS is still waiting for the opposition to give it this list.

But the former Colombian president, who was known to have his differences with the Chávez government and the Electoral Council because of their efforts to impede the referendum, said he considered his work here done.

''Both the OAS and the Carter Center have observed over 50 elections each. And our system has been proven over and over again,'' he said. ``In our judgment, this chapter is closed.''

Several opposition politicians, however, have said the OAS is not infallible.

They point to the Peruvian presidential elections in 2000 in which the Gaviria-run organization signed off on what turned out to be fraudulent results from the first round of the elections.

The OAS pulled out of the second round.