Anticipating the announcement by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) that will hopefully validate Nicolás Maduro’s electoral victory, María Corina Machado and the candidate of the Democratic Unity Party (PUD), Edmundo González Urrutia, warned that any decision not to recognize the opposition’s victory in the July 28 elections would have no legitimacy whatsoever. If what is almost a given were to happen, the TSJ through its electoral chamber would be “a violation of the inalienable rights of voters and would incur criminal, civil and administrative liability.” In their statement, Machado and González Urrutia cited the same Constitution drafted and promulgated under the government of Hugo Chávez, which affirms in its article 138 that “all usurped power is ineffective and its acts are null.”
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According to opposition leaders, nearly four weeks after the election, “the National Electoral Council has not published the results and has not complied with the guidelines for verification and monitoring,” which have also been demanded by Brazil, Colombia, the United States, the European Union, and other Latin American countries of different political affiliations.
The UN and Carter Center’s electoral experts’ team not only questioned the CNE’s procedures, but also the numbers themselves, half of which were not disclosed. For Machado and González Urrutia, it is “inconceivable” that “the CNE would announce the results” that gave Maduro the victory “without presenting the evidence that we already have and that we have made available to Venezuelans and the world.” The UDPR has no doubt that its standard-bearer won the contest. “We demand transparency and strict compliance with the rule of law,” the document adds. “We will not accept the judicialization of the democratic change decided by the people,” it says, referring to Maduro’s decision to appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice.
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