CARACAS, Aug. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela on Friday ruled out any possibility of a fraud, as claimed by the opposition, in the victory of President Hugo Chavez in the recall referendum held last Sunday.

    A senior official of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena, said no irregularity has been spotted in the auditing of 150 electoral centers, as confirmed by the international observers.

    In 15 percent of the audited centers, "we have not drawn a single ballot showing any irregularity," she added.

    Representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the US-based Carter Center, which jointly carried out the audit Thursday with the CNE at the request of the opposition, saidthat until Thursday, 35 percent of the random sampling of 150 voting centers, out of a total of 12,358, had been checked.

    The audit, made on a random sampling of 400 voting machines, aimed to dispel fraud charges from the opposition in the referendum, which accused the government of tampering with electronic voting machines to give Chavez 59 percent of the vote, compared with 41 percent backing its recall.

    However, opposition leaders boycotted the audit, saying it was not stringent enough, and demanded a far wider audit to include the touch-screen machines used in the referendum.

    Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and reelected to a six-year term in 2000, rejected his opponents' accusation and said they aretrying to stir up anti-government unrest in Venezuela.

    On Friday, CNE Director Jorge Rodriguez also said the auditing of the votes of the recall referendum has "very overwhelming" results of the legitimacy of the process.

    The auditing was carried out although there was no formal charges of fraud as claimed by the opponents of President Chavez, he noted.

    Rodriguez insisted that until now, the CNE has not received a single charge of fraud. "Everything will be sufficiently cleared up by the time we present the auditing results which, from my perspective are overwhelming," he said.

    "This is the last auditing by the CNE in order to bring calm topeople who have been bombarded by a series of denunciations that are, from our perspective, unfounded," said Rodriguez.

    Meanwhile, both the Carter Center and the OAS have expressed their attitude toward the fairness of the referendum.

    "Based on our prior examination of the voting machines, we expect the audit will confirm the results," said Jennifer McCoy, leader of the Carter Center observer mission.

    "If there is a significant pattern, ... this audit will demonstrate it," she added.

    On Thursday, the OAS said the fact that the same results of therecall referendum were registered in different voting machines "isnot suspicious."

    At a press conference, mission representative Edgar Castro saidthe results were similar in 47 voting machines.

    According to a communique issued by the OAS, its international electoral observation mission validated the victory of Chavez, saying the results were "compatible with the internal controls effected by the mission."

    "The electronic-voting system and the broadcasting of the results of the electoral journey were adequately audited, with alldue conditions to ensure the secrecy and fidelity of the vote," itadded.

    Beside the international observers, many foreign countries haverecognized Chavez's win. The United States, the biggest buyer of Venezuela's oil, has said that "the process was credible and met international standards."

    About 10 million Venezuelans cast their votes in Sunday's referendum to decide whether President Chavez should finish the remaining two years of his six-year term or step down.

    A massive turnout forced the authorities to twice extend the closing time of the referendum and keep polling stations open wellafter midnight. Enditem