A U.N. panel of electoral experts said in a new report that Venezuela’s national electoral authority fell short of following through on basic “transparency and integrity measures that are essential to holding credible elections.”

       The panel of four experts, one of the few independent groups invited to Venezuela on the occasion of the July 28 vote, released a report on Tuesday that was not initially expected to be made public. In it, the U.N. experts wrote that the government’s decision to announce an election outcome without publicizing its details “has no precedent in contemporary democratic elections.”