Venezuela’s Supreme Court to review election documentation to “decide” outcome

VENEZUELA (France 24).-The highest court in Venezuela announced that it will conduct an examination of the “documents submitted” by the candidates in the presidential election on July 28. The court, which is controlled by judges close to the government, says it is working on a ruling that will be “final and unappealable.” The president of the court, questioned for her past militancy in Chavez, stressed that the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who ran under the protection of a coalition of opposition parties, had incurred contempt by not appearing before this court.

The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela ruled on Saturday on the appeal for constitutional protection filed by President Nicolás Maduro regarding the presidential election held on July 28. In a document published on August 10, the court states that it will conduct an “expert appraisal” of the documents submitted by participating candidates and political organizations (parties).

“The magistrates of this Electoral Chamber are engaged in the expert examination of all the material submitted – physical and digital – regarding the massive cyber attack that the National Electoral Council (CNE) was subjected to,” said the president of the court, Caryslia Rodríguez, before the diplomatic corps accredited in the country, confirming the version of the ruling party regarding the alleged attack.

Rodríguez, a former member of the ruling party, stressed that the decision taken will be “unappealable.” She also assured that the investigation “will have highly qualified and suitable personnel” and that it will work with the “highest technical standards,” although she did not provide details in this regard, nor did she estimate the time that this process will take.

The Court is thus tasked with settling the controversy that arose after the results bulletin read by the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, which declared Nicolás Maduro the winner of the elections. The result is questioned by the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), a sort of umbrella made up of civil society organizations and parties linked to the opposition.

Amoroso was a deputy for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and until a year ago held the position of Comptroller General of the Republic, an institution that decreed the political disqualification against opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was banned from the race.

Machado appointed Corina Yoris as his substitute, but the CNE also prevented the registration of her candidacy. In the final hours of the registration process, the opposition managed to register Edmundo González Urrutia, a 74-year-old career diplomat who until a few months ago was unknown on the political scene, as a candidate.

The opposition alleges electoral fraud and claims to have made public more than 80% of the voting records or vouchers issued by the voting machines collected by a citizen network of electoral witnesses accredited by the CNE. According to these records, Edmundo González Urrutia obtained 67% of the votes, against 30% for the official candidate Nicolás Maduro, who was seeking a third term.

The Venezuelan Constitution establishes that all electoral matters fall under the jurisdiction of the Electoral Power, whose highest authority is the CNE. The law also requires the body to publish the results broken down by entity, municipalities, parishes, voting centers and polling stations within 48 hours after the election. But more than 10 days after the election, the CNE has still not released the detailed results and says it has been the victim of a cyber attack.

Organizations such as the Carter Center, which was invited as an electoral observer, say that the election did not meet international standards and cannot be considered democratic.

“The Carter Center cannot verify or corroborate the election results declared by the National Electoral Council (CNE), and the electoral authority’s failure to announce results broken down by electoral college constitutes a serious violation of electoral principles,” the organization said on July 30 after leaving the country.

Another organization, the Colombian Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), published a report on August 3 that reached similar conclusions. Meanwhile, the United States, the European Union and a handful of countries in Latin America are demanding the publication of the data and an audit of the results. The governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are seeking to mediate a solution to the crisis.

For now, the president of the TSJ recalled that González Urrutia was the only one of the ten candidates who did not appear before the TSJ for the process. González Urrutia said in a statement that he would not go to the highest court because he would be participating in an act that —he said— violates due process: “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,” insisted the former diplomat.