Venezuela issues arrest warrant for opposition leader Gonzalez

Venezuela's AttorneyGeneral's office said a court has issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, accusing him of incitement and other crimes amid a dispute over whether he or President Nicolas Maduro won a July election.

Attorney-General Tarek Saab shared a photo of the warrant with Reuters via the Telegram messaging app on Sept 2.

The issue of an arrest warrant against Mr Gonzalez would amount to a major escalation in the Maduro government's crackdown against the opposition following the disputed election.

Venezuela's national electoral authority and its top court say Mr Maduro was the victor of the July 28 election with just over half of the votes, but tallies shared by the opposition show a resounding victory for Mr Gonzalez.

The opposition, some Western countries and world bodies like a UN panel of experts have said the vote was not transparent, with some outright decrying fraud.

The opposition has published what it says are copies of over 80 per cent of ballot box-level tallies on a public website, while the electoral council says a cyber attack on election night has prevented its publication of the full tallies.