Caracas.- On Wednesday evening, the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office announced the opening of a new criminal investigation into the publication of a website distributed by opposition actors, in which they disclosed the electoral records showing that their candidate Edmundo González obtained significantly more votes in the elections of July 28.
The criminal investigation was initiated by the publication on a website called http://resultadosconvzla.com/, where “alleged forged or falsified documents are published in a notorious and communicative manner with which it is intended to illegally usurp functions of the CNE, causing the dissemination of this false information to cause anxiety” in the country, says a statement released by the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab through his X account, formerly Twitter.
Those responsible for the publication and the page will be investigated for the alleged crimes of “instigating disobedience of the law, computer crimes, criminal association and conspiracy,” the document says.
Initially, the opposition released scanned copies of the voting records via a link. But last Friday, after several days of attacks by Maduro and his allies against González and Machado, it gave public access to the databases directly via the Internet.
The announcement by the prosecutor’s office comes on the same day that opposition candidate Edmundo González was due to appear before the Supreme Court of Justice, which opened a process requested by President Nicolás Maduro to conduct an expert appraisal of the results of the presidential elections that gave the president victory amid claims of lack of transparency in the elections and international pressure.
Representatives of the three parties that nominated him, however, did attend the summons and demanded the publication of the pending official results, as required by law.
The absence of Gonzalez, a 74-year-old former diplomat, had been previously confirmed by his campaign headquarters to The Associated Press.
“If I go to the Electoral Chamber in these conditions, I will be in absolute vulnerability due to defenselessness and violation of due process, and I will put at risk not only my freedom but, more importantly, the will of the Venezuelan people expressed on July 28” in the elections, González said in a statement released on social media.
Gonzalez and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado — who emerged as the driving force behind his candidacy after being banned from holding public office just after announcing her intention to participate in the elections — have been in hiding since last week. While Gonzalez has not been seen in public since then, Machado joined a demonstration in Caracas on Saturday to support Gonzalez, who claims he won the election.
Maduro, who was seeking re-election for a third six-year term and was declared the winner by the pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) without the details of the votes being publicly available, has said he is willing to show the full tally sheets. The opposition, meanwhile, claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 electronic voting machines across the country that show Gonzalez won.
González was among the first on the list to appear before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, along with other opposition leaders.
“The Electoral Chamber cannot usurp the functions of the Electoral Power and ‘certify’ results that have not yet been produced in accordance with the constitution and the law,” the former diplomat insisted.
It is unclear whether Gonzalez could face legal consequences for his decision not to appear at the hearing.
Judge Caryslia Rodriguez, president of the Supreme Court and the Electoral Chamber, warned on Monday in a televised hearing that failure to appear before that legal body will entail the corresponding consequences provided for in the law, without giving details.
Representatives of the three parties that nominated González as a unitary candidate, Manuel Rosales, José Luis Cartaya and José Simón Calzadilla, attended the summons of the Court.
“We faced a separate, exhaustive interrogation” about the electoral process, Rosales, governor of Zulia state, told the press, stressing that he attended in person, while González used “epistolary means.”
“We are all demanding respect for the vote… and the election results,” Rosales added.
Calzadilla said that “we left this high court with more doubts than when we arrived and we were not given any clarification as to what we were doing or what this interpellation by the judges consisted of.”
He described the process as “irregular” and stated that the institutions must “put themselves at the service of transparency and demand that the CNE comply with the provisions of the electoral law, which indicate that within “a period of 48 hours the process of totaling (the votes) should be concluded with the proper tabulation table by table.”
The announcement that the Supreme Court — dominated by jurists seen as government allies and former pro-government lawmakers — would conduct an audit of the election immediately sparked criticism.
International organisations such as Human Rights Watch have also denounced the lack of judicial independence in Venezuela.
Three days after the election, Maduro asked the Supreme Court to conduct an “expertise on the results” and review any allegations of irregularities, including a “cyber attack” that the CNE’s automated systems suffered on voting day.
As accusations of fraud in Venezuela continue, international pressure has grown on the Venezuelan government and the government-controlled electoral body to make the results transparent.
Several regional leaders, including Colombian allies Gustavo Petro and Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have urged that a full breakdown of the election results be published.
Critics of the president, including Machado, have said that instead of going to the Supreme Court, the CNE should be required to be “transparent” in the dissemination of complete voting data, table by table.
For his part, Attorney General Tarek William Saab reported on Monday that a criminal case had been opened against González and Machado for their “open incitement” of police and military officials to disobey the law, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Since last week, Maduro and his allies have demanded that justice be applied to the two opponents they accused of promoting the protests that occurred in different regions after the electoral body proclaimed the president’s reelection.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the decision after Machado and González urged the military to “prevent the regime’s unbridled actions against the people and to respect, and to ensure respect for, the results of the elections.”
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