Venezuelan justice orders suspension of opposition primaries

The supreme court of Venezuelaof the official line, suspended this Monday “all effects” of the primary process of the opposition and demanded the delivery of the voting notebook, amidst allegations of fraud by the chavismo ruler.

”All effects of the different phases of the electoral process conducted by the ‘national primary commission’ are suspended”noted the ruling on an appeal for protection against the primary process introduced last week.

The elections to elect President Nicolás Maduro’s rival in the 2024 elections were held in a self-managed manner on October 22 and had a surprising participation of 2.4 million people and a sweeping victory for the disqualified liberal María Corina Machado, with 92% of votes. the votes.

Maduro, his party and the rest of the authorities maintained that the opposition inflated the numbers and were unaware of the process.

The Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), with a pro-government line, admitted an appeal for protection against the primary filed by the dissident opponent José Brito, a member of Parliament and branded as a collaborationist.

“All the effects of the different phases of the electoral process conducted by the ‘national primary commission’ are suspended,” noted the ruling published on the website of the country’s highest court.

At the same time, prosecutor Tarek William Saab opened an investigation and summoned this Monday to testify as “investigated” to Jesús María Casal, president of the National Primary Commission (CNP) and other members of his team.

The primaries were held five days after the government and the opposition agreed to respect the primaries at a dialogue table, where it was also decided to hold the presidential elections in the second half of 2024 with observation by the European Union and other international actors.

The United States, in response, eased the oil embargo imposed on the country in 2019 for six months, but conditioned it on enabling opponents like Machado, something that Chavismo, at least in its speech, has ruled out.

In fact, in its ruling, the TSJ refers to Machado as “citizen firmly disqualified for 15 years,” reaffirming a sanction imposed in June for alleged corruption and promoting sanctions, which the opposition calls unconstitutional.

Voter identity

Casal, his vice president Mildred Camero, and Roberto Abdul-Hadi, a deputy on the board, are questioned by prosecutors with jurisdiction in “matter against money laundering, financial and economic crimes”, according to the summons slip.

The prosecutor’s office is investigating the alleged commission of crimes of usurpation of electoral and identity functions, as well as money laundering and criminal association. The Electoral Chamber also warned about “the alleged commission of electoral crimes and the alleged commission of common crimes.”

“I don’t feel bad, I don’t have a guilt complex. “What (the prosecutor) says is different from what we actually did, but those will be matters that will be discussed in court.”Camero said last Thursday.

Members of the regional boards that organized the primaries in other states of the country were also summoned to provincial headquarters of the prosecutor’s office.

The primary did not have the assistance of the National Electoral Council (CNE), which, after months of evasions, finally proposed at the last minute to postpone the event for a month to be able to organize them but without guarantees of being able to register disqualified candidates, a condition of the opposition. .

The court also demanded the “administrative background, containing the 25 phases that must govern the electoral process”, including the voting notebooks, which the opposition insists on keeping secret to avoid reprisals against the participants by the government.

In the past, Chavismo already published a list with the names of those who signed to call for a recall referendum between 2003 and 2004 against former president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013).

There were ‘signatories’ fired from the public administration or not hired by anti-Chavistas.

Source: AFP