Maduro asked the TSJ “certify” the result of the July 28 electionsin which the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared him the winner with 52% of the votes. Meanwhile, the opposition claimed to have won the elections and accuses both the TSJ and the CNE of serving Chavismo.
The president of the TSJ and the Electoral Chamber in charge of the case, Caryslia Rodríguez, read the sentence that “certifies in an unobjectionable manner the electoral material examined and this chamber validates the results of the presidential election of July 28, 2024, issued by the National Electoral Council, where Citizen Nicolás Maduro Moros was elected as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for the constitutional period 2025-2031.”
Rodríguez cited a technical report that concluded that “the bulletins issued by the National Electoral Council regarding the 2024 presidential election are supported by the voting records issued by each of the voting machines” and “maintain full coincidence with the records from the databases of the national totalisation centres“Therefore, the ruling is final.
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For its part, the political opposition led by María Corina Macha claims that Edmundo González Urrutia won with 67% of the votes and posted on a website copies of the minutes that, he claims, Chavismo has said that the material is “forged.”
Minutes after the ruling, González Urrutia, candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), reacted on the social network X (before Twitter): “Null, sovereignty resides non-transferably in the people,” says an illustration showing a judicial document, accompanied by the label “They will not usurp the truth”.
Machado herself and González Urrutia had announced on August 21, in a letter endorsed by the opposition coalition, that they would consider “ineffective and null” any eventual sentence that “can validate the electoral fraud that is intended to be imposed.”
Sovereignty resides in an untransferable manner in the people. The organs of the State emanate from popular sovereignty and are subject to it. #TheyWillNotUsurpTheTruth. pic.twitter.com/ReG8OctDbz
— Edmundo Gonzalez (@EdmundoGU) August 22, 2024
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Jurists agree that this procedure was inappropriate, arguing that the Supreme Court assumes powers that correspond to the CNE.
“Lack of independence and impartiality”
The United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries have not recognized Maduro’s proclamation for a third term.
An independent mission of the United Nations Organization to assess the human rights situation in Venezuela questioned the independence of Venezuelan institutions.
The mission warned about “the lack of independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court of Justice and the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, which have played a role within the repressive machinery of the State,” according to a message released in X by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
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Machado thanked “this firm and unequivocal position.” “There is no maneuver that can grant an iota of legitimacy to Nicolás Maduro,” she added.
In turn, Maduro accuses González Urrutia and Machado of promote violence and incite a coup d’état against him, following the protests that broke out when the result was known, leaving 27 dead, almost 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested.
The Venezuelan president requested that both be imprisoned and the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal investigation.
Maduro has the “absolute loyalty” of the high command of the Armed Forceswho have dismissed calls from the opposition to support them.
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Parliament, also controlled by Chavismo, is promoting a series of laws that include a legislation against fascisma term that Maduro often uses to disqualify his adversaries, and one to regulate social networks. The platform X has been blocked in Venezuela since August 8. In addition, a law on the supervision of NGOs was passed, which was criticized by human rights activists.
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