Venezuela: Presidential Candidates And Political Parties Submit Electoral Evidence To Supreme Court

Andreína Chávez Alava

Far-Right Opposition Rejects Request

Caracas, August 10, 2024 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Representatives from political parties and presidential candidates in the July 28 election have appeared before the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to testify and submit voting records.

The TSJ intervened in the electoral process following a request by President Nicolás Maduro that the high court review and validate the electoral results that proclaimed him the winner. The legal move followed claims of fraud by the far-right opposition, led by political leader María Corina Machado, and transparency concerns by other national and international sectors.

According to Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), with 96.87 percent of polling stations tallied, Maduro won the election with 51.95 percent (6.4 million votes) compared to 43.18 percent (5.3 million votes) for US-backed opposition candidate Edmundo González.

However, the electoral institution has not published detailed results from every voting center on its website alleging that its operations were affected by a cyberattack.

On Tuesday, CNE President Elvis Amoroso delivered the electoral evidence requested by the Supreme Court, including disaggregated voting records and totals. The electoral authority was likewise asked to provide evidence of the cyberattack, with experts calling for thorough answers given that the CNE’s data transmission is an offline, encrypted process.

For its part, Venezuela’s hardline opposition has rejected the official results and set up a parallel website purportedly including more than 80 percent of voting records from polling stations gathered by its electoral witnesses. These unverified electoral tallies grant González a landslide victory with nearly 70 percent of the vote.

The lack of detailed electoral data and the opposition’s fraud claim has sparked protests in several cities which in some cases led to violent outbreaks. There have been more than 2,000 arrests to date. Venezuelan authorities have denounced the violence as part of a coup attempt and that most detainees were involved in vandalism, violent actions, the assassination of two women community leaders as well as calls on social media to attack Chavismo supporters and officials.

Between August 7-9, nine out of ten presidential candidates who ran in the election and representatives from political organizations that backed them attended hearings at the Supreme Court headquarters in Caracas to testify and submit electoral evidence, including voting records.

Venezuelan political parties can have witnesses at voting centers and obtain copies of the results. The TSJ requested this hard evidence to contrast with the electoral institution’s original tallies and certify the legitimacy of the results.

Despite the opposition insisting on González victory and claiming to have the data to back it up, the candidate did not comply with the judicial order to introduce the physical voting records in his campaign team’s possession.

In a communique issued on Tuesday, González claimed that attending the hearing would have put him at “risk” of detention and rejected the judicial procedure for releasing CNE authorities of their obligation to publish the brokedown vote. TSJ President Caryslia Rodríguez took note of the politicians’s disregard of the court’s summons.

However, the representatives of the three political parties that endorsed González on the ballot appeared before the court on Wednesday but did not present any voting tallies.

Manuel Rosales, from the Un Nuevo Tiempo party, said that they were not obliged to submit evidence and that the parallel results website had all the copies. “The CNE must publish the definitive results,” he told the press after the hearing.

The hardline opposition’s refusal to submit physical evidence and candidate no-show drew criticism from other former presidential hopefuls, with José Brito labeling their plans “insurrectional.”

Two-time presidential hopeful Javier Bertucci told reporters that the opposition’s parallel results website was an “attempt against peace” and possibly an “electoral infraction.” He added that his political party had found some differences between their voting records and the ones published on the website.

Daniel Ceballos, from the AREPA party, and Claudio Fermín from Soluciones likewise criticized the far-right’s lack of compliance with the TSJ process and backed the Electoral Chamber to resolve the ongoing uncertainty. Fermín went on to call on authorities to publish the detailed electoral results and to examine the detentions made during the recent protests, stating that some of the arrested are “neither terrorists nor criminals.”

“What is not comprehensible is that some claim to have the voting records [that backed their electoral victory] but do not submit them [to the court]. The instance to resolve this matter is the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, not social media or a virtual court, and much less the heads of state or ambassadors of six or seven foreign powers,” stated Fermín.

For his part, self-declared “moderate” Antonio Ecarri, who leads the Lápiz Alliance, submitted a “constitutional review” appeal requesting that the Supreme Court clarify the respective responsibilities of its electoral chamber and of those of the CNE.

The last political faction to go before the TSJ was the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) and the other 12 organizations that endorsed Maduro on the ballot.

On Friday, PSUV Vice President Diosdado Cabello told the press the organizations delivered the tally sheets gathered by their witnesses and other documentation required by the court.

Cabello recalled that Venezuela’s electoral institution does not publish paper tallies, but only final results. “If I have any problem with the result I show my tally sheets to prove it,” he explained.

President Maduro likewise appeared before the Supreme Court on Friday. In a press conference afterward, he criticized the opposition for pretending to proclaim González as president and claimed that a “high-level expertise” showed that 83 percent of the voting sheets published on their website were false.

“Whatever the TSJ says will be law and rest assured that the vast majority of Venezuelans will abide by it and life will go on,” he told reporters outside the courtroom. Maduro accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of responsibility for the cyberattack against the CNE and ordered a ten-day suspension of the X platform. He had previously denounced Whatsapp for complicity in threats against Chavista leaders and supporters.

Asked about regional mediation efforts amidst the post-electoral tension, Maduro said his government was in direct communication with Brazil, México and Colombia and that a meeting was pending with respective presidents Lula da Silva, Manuel López Obrador and Gustavo Petro.

“I hope it takes place [..] I will explain in detail a very complex situation to understand because there are many lies and manipulations in the hegemonic media. We will communicate when the time is right,” declared Maduro.

On Friday, the three presidents issued a communique calling to respect Venezuelan sovereignty and urging the electoral authorities to release the detailed results. They expressed support for “dialogue efforts” that contribute to “political stability” in the Caribbean nation.

© Scoop Media