MIAMI.- He Carter Center questioned the suitability of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela to review the minutes of the scrutiny of the presidential election on Sunday, the result of which is rejected by the opposition, because it is not an independent body of the state power exercised by the Nicolas Maduro regime.
Jenny K. Lincoln, Latin America analyst at the Carter Center and leader of the delegation that went to Venezuela to observe the elections, he stated that the evaluation made by the TSJ will not be independent and stressed that Maduro does not need to resort to the TSJ but rather demand transparency from the CNE in the dissemination of complete voting data, table by table.
“They have the ability to do that. They don’t need the Supreme Court.”said Lincoln. “What they need is to do their duty, something they can do and have done in past elections,” he concluded.
On Wednesday, Maduro asked the Supreme Court, a body controlled by his regime, to conduct an “expertise” on the results of the presidential elections given by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which are the subject of complaints for lack of transparency.
The president went to the TSJ to request an investigation of the entire process that includes an “expertise of the results” and the “cyber attack” that he claims the CNE systems suffered on the day of the vote.
Nevertheless, The TSJ is closely aligned with the Venezuelan regime and is the same one that ratified last January the disqualification without legal basis of the opposition member María Corina Machadowhich prevented her from running for office. The judges of the highest court are proposed by the Attorney General’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office and then ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by the ruling party. In Venezuela, there is no independence of powers because the regime has placed allies in high positions.
The Carter Center Report
On Tuesday night, The Carter Center said it cannot verify the results of Venezuela’s disputed elections due to the CNE’s “lack of transparency” in disseminating the results.
The chose “it did not conform to international parameters and standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic,” the organization said in a statement.
Maduró, for his part, discredited the position of the Carter Center, which he said was linked to the US State Department. “They had a report already written… What was missing was spice,” he said without giving details.
The CNE website, which was supposed to collect and allow access to the vote count, has been down since at least Monday morning, when Maduro was officially declared the winner of the elections.
According to the dictator, who is seeking international recognition after the elections, the CNE has been under cyber “attack.” He did not provide further details on the measures the electoral body is taking to resolve the alleged problems.
The Venezuelan opposition maintains that the tally sheets it has in its possession – 84% of the total – reflect a majority of votes in favor of its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, whom it declared president-elect. On Monday, the opposition announced the launch of a website where voters can consult the tally sheets from the centers where they cast their vote and see the results of the votes in each case.
Source: With information from AP