Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory Monday after a controversial election to pick a new constitution-writing body that triggered deadly violence and drew international condemnation.

"We have a Constituent Assembly," the embattled leftist leader said in a speech to hundreds of supporters in central Caracas, after the electoral authority put the voter turnout at 41.5 percent.

"It is the biggest vote the revolution has ever scored in its 18-year history," he said, referring to the year his mentor Hugo Chavez came to power.

source: AFP