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CARACAS (AP) — Venezuela’s Supreme Court reported Saturday that it will begin issuing a formal expert opinion on the electoral results of the July 28 presidential election, at the request of the president, once the phase of collecting evidentiary material is completed. This resource of Nicolás Maduro has been questioned by foreign observers, who doubt the independence of the organization.
The president of the court, Carlislea Rodríguez, announced at a press conference that the judges of the electoral chamber, after summoning the actors to appear before the court and “collecting the electoral paperwork”, “will focus on the expert evaluation of all the electoral materials” and the evidentiary value of the records. “Physical and / or digital means.”
The Supreme Court is handling Maduro’s disputed electoral appeal against official results, which the opposition deemed won by single candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, while the ruling party accuses the coalition of wanting to ignore its victory decreed by electoral authorities.
Although Rodriguez did not mention the time required for the evaluation phase this time, he said on August 5 that the Chamber “began the expert evaluation of the materials delivered, which can be extended by 15 days”. He pointed out that the judgment issued will have the nature of res judicata and cannot be appealed, and “must be followed”.
The Carter Center, which was invited by Venezuela’s electoral body to observe the July 28 election, in which the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner, questioned the independence of the court’s final analysis. “It was not an independent assessment,” Jennie K. Lincoln, a Latin America analyst at the Carter Center and head of its Venezuela mission, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The Carter Center previously said it was unable to verify Venezuela’s disputed election results, citing a “lack of transparency” by the electoral body in disseminating the results.
According to the National Electoral Council, Maduro received 6.4 million votes and González received 5.3 million, although he has so far not made the results public despite international calls for it to be released. The opposition, however, claims to have collected 83% of the minutes, showing that its candidate González received 7.3 million votes and Maduro received 3.3 million.
Rodriguez recorded that among the 10 candidates and 38 other political representatives summoned to the judiciary, opposition candidate González Urrutia did not respond to the summons, therefore “he did not comply with the summons and disregarded its inaction” authorization. He did not mention what consequences this could have.
The president of the Supreme Court added that González Urrutia did not record the review minutes, the list of witnesses or any material, and that although representatives of the three political parties that nominated him were present at the court’s appointment, they did not produce any electoral material that could have led to be evaluated as evidence in their complaint regarding irregularities in the electoral results.
The judge said that considering the Constitution and existing laws, “there is no doubt that justice will be done.”
Maduro appeared in court the day before and said he answered questions about his trial “legally.”
“We won, everyone knows it and we have time to prove it,” the leader of the opposition, María Corina Machado, assured on Saturday on the account of the social network X. A few hours later, writing on the same network, he called for a “massive global protest” on Saturday, August 17, in which Venezuelans around the world would unite to “speak out for the truth.”
The opposition alliance also expressed distrust in the actions of the Supreme Court, which it considers to be closely linked to the regime.
González Urrutia then gave his assurance that peaceful protest “is not a crime,” as is not accepting the popular will.
“A crime is being persecuted, imprisoned and unjustly condemned hundreds of innocent citizens,” continued the former diplomat and Maduro challenger, urging Maduro to accept “the opinions expressed by our people”. He assured his compatriots that he remains on the side of the people, “defending the truth and the will for peaceful change”.
Venezuela is in a political crisis following the presidential election, reflected in street protests. According to the latest records of Venezuelan rights group Foro Penal, the South American country’s law enforcement forces have detained 1,303 citizens, with the prosecutor’s office accusing the group of promoting violence and “terror”. President Maduro mentioned 2,000 arrests in a public statement a week ago.
The international community and human rights organizations have condemned and called for the release of the detainees. The day before, the UN High Commissioner, through her spokeswoman Liz Troxell, called for the “immediate” release of those arbitrarily arrested and reiterated that all people have the right to protest and express their ideas peacefully “freely and without fear”.
Meanwhile, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo said in a W radio statement on Saturday that Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will hold a virtual meeting next week with Maduro as part of diplomatic efforts to overcome the crisis.
Murillo noted that this was the first dialogue and that if “mediation” was accepted, it would have to be conducted with all the actors. He said the position of the group carrying out “diplomatic management” was to “remove any doubts and make progress in achieving a certain level of assurance and credibility in this process.”
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