Márquez: “TSJ ruling is a blow to the Republic”

Enrique Márquez, former presidential candidate of the “Concentrados” movement, denounced the ruling of the Electoral Chamber approving the electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro this Friday, while the CNE continues to not publish the minutes of the July 28 meeting.

He announced to the press that he would ask the Constitutional Court to review the decision issued this Thursday by the president of the TSJ Carislya Rodríguez, whom he asked to recuse himself because he is a member of the government party PSUV and cannot guarantee impartiality.

In his opinion, the TSJ ruling – criticized and considered invalid by several jurists – far from resolving the political conflict in Venezuela, “exacerbates” it, and although the decisions of this power are “not appealable”, they need to be reviewed.

Likewise, he also demanded that this initiative is not an individual one, but a popular movement supported by all sectors of society.

“All the procedural flaws occurred in the Supreme Court’s ruling that violated the vote. If the power of the electoral vote was weakened, we gave the Republic a chance; this ruling made the situation worse and also violated the Constitution, which is why we decided to exercise our right to an appellate review.”

“We hope that you will join us in making this call so that it is not only an individual initiative, but also an initiative of institutions, political parties, people, the people, to demand a judgment on the constitutionality of the law. “We will turn this initiative into a citizens’ movement to defend Article 5 of our Constitution, which states that power belongs to the people through the vote.”

Speaker Jorge Rodríguez and Deputy Speaker Diosdado Cabello “abused their power and overstepped the leadership of the National Electoral Council, which no one respects, to threaten to deprive political parties of their electoral rights,” Márquez warned. “This is not its function, despite the continued hacking of the principal.”

“These threats destroy institutions, but do not continue to threaten because they cannot be sustained by threats, blackmail and repression. We all have to do our part here and I continue to take the institutional route. “This is a catastrophic situation,” he said.