MIRA: “Many chavistas switched to the opposition and voted for Edmundo as a way to vote for María Corina Machado”
“Let the chamber address this attack against the electoral process, this attempted coup using the electoral process, and clarify everything that needs to be clarified about these attacks, about this process,” said the chavista leader upon leaving the TSJ.
While the details of the text presented to the Electoral Chamber are not known, chavismo seeks for the country’s highest court to summon representatives of institutions, as well as the 10 candidates – 8 of whom have called for more transparency – and “cross-check all elements of evidence and certify, making a very high-level technical assessment, the electoral results of July 28,” according to Maduro himself.
“Electoral contentious resources are against electoral bodies, not against citizens. In this case, it should apply to those affected by acts of the National Electoral Council (CNE), but it seems that the president is going to challenge acts or actions that are not from the CNE. It constitutes an inadmissible resource and precautionary request according to the law. The State and its members have the power to enforce the rules; they need nothing more than that; citizens are the ones who need the courts to defend themselves from those actions when they affect their rights,” explains the Venezuelan lawyer and director of the NGO Access to Justice, Laura Louza, to El Comercio.
“The precautionary measures are exercised against violations of human rights, and the State – or whoever acts on its behalf – is the one violating human rights, so it’s hard to understand how a member of the State is going to request a precautionary measure if he is not a citizen and is rather part of the State. The resource would have made more sense if it had been filed by the president of the PSUV, not Maduro. That already demonstrates an abuse of authority,” adds the expert. “Judicial bodies, when dealing with actions of the Public Power, as in the case of the CNE, have the authority to review their actions, and thereafter make decisions based on a judicial process.”
Details of the text presented to the TSJ’s Electoral Chamber are not known, but his statements suggest that he seeks to certify his controversial victory.
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– Justice under scrutiny –
Not only the opposition but also specialists and international organizations have denounced countless times that the Venezuelan judicial system responds to the orders of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, a corruption of this body that originated in the early years of chavismo but that in any case solidified in 2004 through the reform of the Organic Law of the TSJ.
In recent years, this influence has been reflected in acts such as the lifting of immunity for deputies who were inconvenient for the regime, arrest warrants for opponents of Maduro, or the disqualification of María Corina Machado to prevent her from participating in the recent electoral process.
“The Judiciary has been kidnapped from the start by chavismo. Indeed, in recent years it is completely clear that the TSJ has no independence, the entire Judiciary has no independence. It has been complicit in repression, does not exercise judicial control; when there are resources against the State, they are always declared against the person and in favor of the State. Michelle Bachelet said it in 2020 and the UN fact-finding mission stated in its 2021 report; it has been said by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the very prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in his report from November 2021,” comments Louza regarding this.
More than 72 hours have passed since CNE president Elvis Amoroso announced Maduro’s victory, attributing him 51.2% of the votes compared to 44.2% for opposition candidate Edmundo González, but still, the electoral records that would certify such a result have not been seen. Maduro, for his part, has limited himself to announcing that he is “ready to present 100% of the records” without detailing when or how he will do it.
“The CNE has failed to meet its duty to total the records within the 48 hours following, according to Article 146 of the Electoral Processes Law. And although in this case it has stated that it cannot do so and there are provisions in the law regarding this, it was not appropriate to proclaim the new candidate as it did. First, the total is done, then it is assigned, and then it is proclaimed; you cannot proclaim without having totaled. Thus, the fault lies with the CNE, and actions should be taken against this. The CNE is the one that must respond, and if it does not, the Comptroller’s Office or the Public Ministry should take the necessary actions regarding its officials,” details Louza.
The CNE proclaimed Maduro as the winner of the elections without showing the electoral records to certify it.
– Patience runs out –
One of the fears that has arisen after the request for assessment is that the TSJ may certify a set of records that are not authentic. In this regard, the Venezuelan journalist specialized in elections, Eugenio G. Martínez, explained through his account on the social network X that it will be important to audit the authenticity of the alphanumeric code of each record and its digital signature.
The United States government has warned both the international community and them that “they are running out of patience waiting for the Venezuelan electoral authorities to be truthful and publish complete and detailed data about the elections so that everyone can see the results,” noted deputy spokesperson for the State Department, Vedant Patel, during a press conference.
This statement came hours after the Carter Center, which sent one of the only two observer missions authorized by Venezuela, warned that the process “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic.”
“The Carter Center cannot verify or corroborate the results of the elections declared by the National Electoral Council,” expressed the American organization in its statement of just over a page. “The fact that the electoral authority does not announce detailed results by polling station constitutes a serious violation of electoral principles,” it assured.
The United Nations delegation, the other observer mission that participated in the process, has yet to comment on the results. However, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, assured that Antonio Guterres “calls for total transparency and encourages the timely publication of election results and a breakdown by voting centers.”
The Carter Center stated that Sunday’s election “cannot be considered democratic” due to the multiple irregularities they registered.
“The electoral authorities must carry out their work independently and without interference to guarantee the free expression of the electorate’s will,” Dujarric added.
“In a normal country, what the OAS, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or the Carter Center says would carry weight and validity. But in Venezuela, it has become traditional for the government to ignore what any international human rights organization says; there is a tendency to say that everything said from outside is interference and that here we do what we want, but in reality, it is what those in power want. Nevertheless, it remains very important for the Carter Center to say it because it is not the same for me or a national NGO to say it as for an international organization that everyone will believe,” explains Louza.
Like the UN, the European Union, Peru, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Spain, among other governments, have called for Venezuelan authorities to publish the electoral records in order to verify the alleged victory.
