Caracas.- Venezuela’s Supreme Court announced on Saturday that, once the phase of collecting evidence has been completed, the formal examination of the electoral results of the July 28 presidential elections, requested by President Nicolás Maduro, will begin, a resource that has been questioned by foreign observers who doubt the independence of the organization.
The president of the court, Caryslia Rodríguez, announced at a press conference that after the appearance of the summoned actors and “the collection of the electoral instruments”, the magistrates of the electoral chamber “will focus on the expert appraisal of all electoral material of probative value recorded in physical and/or digital form”.
The Supreme Court is processing an electoral appeal filed by Maduro regarding the official results that are being questioned by the opposition, which maintains that the unified candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won, while the government accuses the coalition of wanting to ignore his victory declared by the electoral authority.
Although Rodríguez did not mention the time that the evaluation stage will take, on August 5 he said that the court “will begin an examination of the material submitted for a period of up to 15 days, which may be extended.” The ruling issued will be final and will be unappealable and “obligatory,” he said.
The Carter Center, which was invited by Venezuela’s electoral body to observe the July 28 elections in which the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner, had questioned the independence of the tribunal’s eventual analysis. Jennie K. Lincoln, a Latin America analyst for the Carter Center and leader of the delegation that went to Venezuela, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that “it’s not an independent assessment.”
The Carter Center has previously said it cannot verify the results of Venezuela’s disputed election and has pointed to the electoral body’s “lack of transparency” in releasing the results.
According to the National Electoral Council, Maduro obtained 6.4 million votes and Gonzalez 5.3 million, although it has not yet made public the results of the vote count despite the demands of the international community. Meanwhile, the opposition claims to have compiled 83% of the results, which indicate that its candidate Gonzalez obtained 7.3 million votes and Maduro 3.3 million.
Rodríguez noted that, of the 10 candidates summoned to the judicial instance, and another 38 political representatives, the opposition candidate, González Urrutia, did not respond to the summons, thus “failing to comply with the summons order, disregarding its mandate with his inaction.” He did not refer to the possible consequences that this will entail.
The head of the Supreme Court added that González Urrutia did not submit the minutes of the vote count, the list of witnesses or any other material, and that although the representatives of the three parties that nominated him attended the court meeting, they also did not provide any electoral material that could be evaluated as proof of their complaints of irregularities in the election results.
“There is no doubt that we will deliver justice,” in accordance with the Constitution and current laws, said the judge.
Maduro appeared before the court yesterday and said that he had answered the questions he was asked “in a legal manner.”
Opposition leader María Corina Machado said on her social media account on Saturday that “we won, everyone knows it and we have the records to prove it.” Hours later, she called for a “great global protest” on Saturday, August 17, where Venezuelans anywhere in the world will unite “to raise their voices for the truth,” she wrote on the same network.
The opposition coalition has also expressed its distrust in the actions of the Supreme Court, which it considers to be close to the regime.
Later, González Urrutia, in a message broadcast by X, called on Maduro to “stop the violence, the persecutions” and asked for the immediate release of those “arbitrarily detained.” He said that peaceful protest “is not a crime,” as is not accepting the popular will, he said.
“It is a crime to disappear, persecute, imprison and unjustly condemn hundreds of innocent citizens,” continued the former diplomat and Maduro’s opponent, urging them to accept “what our people have expressed.” He assured his fellow citizens that he remains on the side of the people “defending the truth and the will to change in peace.”
Venezuela has been plunged into a political crisis following the presidential election, which has been reflected in street protests. According to the latest figures from the Venezuelan rights organisation Foro Penal, law enforcement in the South American country has arrested 1,303 citizens, who are accused by the Attorney General’s Office of promoting violent and “terrorist” acts. In public statements a week ago, President Maduro mentioned a figure of 2,000 arrested.
The international community and human rights organizations have condemned and called for the release of those detained. The UN High Commissioner, through her spokesperson, Liz Throssell, called yesterday for the immediate release of those arrested “arbitrarily” and reiterated the right of all people to peacefully protest and express their thoughts “freely and without fear.”
Meanwhile, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo told W Radio on Saturday that the presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, and Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will hold a virtual meeting with Maduro next week, as part of a diplomatic effort to overcome the crisis.
Murillo said that this is a first conversation and that, if a “mediation” is accepted, dialogue will have to be held with all the actors. The position of the group that is carrying out the “diplomatic management,” he said, is “to dispel any doubts, to make progress in being able to have the levels of guarantees and credibility in this process.”
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