Despite pushing for a review of votes in the recall referendum, an opposition coalition in Venezuela wouldn't join an audit Wednesday, seeking tests on machinery instead.

BY STEVEN DUDLEY AND PHIL GUNSON

CARACAS - Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Wednesday refused to take part in a special audit of the results of the president's landslide victory in a recall vote, despite the participation of international observers.

The National Electoral Council reported that with 96 percent of the votes from Sunday's referendum counted, its tallies showed 59.06 percent of the 9,402,892 voters backed Chávez while 40.94 percent voted to recall him.

Observers from former President Jimmy Carter's Atlanta-based Carter Center and the Organization of American States (OAS) have said their own checks on tallies matched the Electoral Council figures giving Chávez victory.

Observers said that on Tuesday, several leaders of the loosely knit opposition coalition known as the Democratic Coordinator had agreed to the terms of the audit, to be carried out by the Electoral Council, Carter Center and OAS.

The audit, which began Wednesday without the Democratic Coordinator, is expected to be finished today.

On Wednesday, however, the group said it wanted more tests on the machinery that tabulated the votes, saying the Electoral Council-Carter-OAS audit would not be able to answer the right questions.

Opposition leaders have said their own exit polls during the balloting Sunday showed Chávez losing the referendum by a vast margin.

TALLIES `IMPOSSIBLE'

Opposition legislator Nelson Rampersad said the opposition coalition had discovered major anomalies in the tally sheets produced by the touch-screen voting machines.

In 25 percent of the results for the state of Aragua, for example, the number of YES votes produced by at least two machines in one polling station were either identical or nearly identical, Rampersad said, suggesting that voting machines had been tampered with. He showed reporters atally sheets showing the anomalies, but offered no other evidence.

''This is mathematically impossible,'' he asserted. In other cities and states, the Democratic Coordinator claims, the pattern of identical or nearly identical YES votes repeated, reaching 40 percent in the western state of Zulia.

The OAS and the Carter Center have observed dozens of elections, and the opposition coalition had said before Sunday's vote that it would accept the results if they were validated by those observers.

Since Sunday, the OAS and Carter Center have said their ''quick counts'' -- random and representative samples of voting tallies from polling stations around the country -- matched Electoral Council tallies showing Chávez as the winner. ''Quick counts'' are the most common, respected means by which observers verify elections worldwide.

The Electoral Council also performed an audit of 199 of the 19,800 machines used in Sunday's vote to make sure the paper receipts that voters deposited into ballot boxes matched the results issued by the voting machines.

International observers said the Democratic Coordinator had also inspected the machines before the elections and had agreed to their use.

ANGRY RESPONSE

Chávez government representatives reacted vehemently to the coalition's announcement that it would not participate in the extra audit.

''Let's be serious,'' said Mari Pili Hernández. ``They ask everyone to get ready to do the audit. Now they don't want to do the audit. That's a lack of respect for the country.''

The voting machines used Sunday were supplied by Boca Raton-based Smartmatic and used software provided by Bitza, a company registered in Venezuela and Florida. Bitza came under some scrutiny in May when The Herald reported that the government owned a 28 percent stake in the company. After the report was published, Bizta announced it would buy back the government's shares.

Smartmatic representatives have said the machines, originally developed in Italy to sell lottery tickets and used in an election for the first time here on Sunday, were safe from fraud and that there are numerous ways to audit them.