Venezuela: CNE Turns Over Electoral Data to Supreme Court, US Walks Back González Recognition

Mexico City, Mexico, August 6, 2024 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) President Elvis Amoroso delivered the electoral evidence requested by the country’s Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), including detailed voting records and totals. 

The TSJ demand of the electoral authority’s full results and accompanying documentation follows a request by President Nicolás Maduro for the country’s highest court to clarify and validate the July 28 electoral process in order to ease the tensions surrounding the outcome.

Amoroso provided the requested information at the end of a three-day window imposed by the TSJ.

The CNE declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election in its most recent update with 51.95 percent (6.4 million votes) compared to 43.18 percent (5.3 million votes) for US-backed opposition candidate Edmundo González.

The hardline opposition coalition backing González, led by far-right political activist María Corina Machado, has disputed the results and alleges it was the victim of a massive fraud. 

The electoral body has not publicly released the detailed results broken down by voting center on its website, which remains out of service. Meanwhile, the opposition has set up a parallel domain purportedly including more than 80 percent of voting records from polling stations gathered by its electoral witnesses on election day.

National Assembly President and former Maduro campaign chief Jorge Rodríguez pointed to several inconsistencies in the opposition’s electoral evidence, suggesting that the materials provided by the opposition were forged.

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela has avoided publishing its own tallies, with internal sources alleging an abundance of caution to protect the legitimacy of their documentation.

Upon receiving the CNE data, the TSJ announced a period of 15 days to review the data and question actors involved in the process. All 10 candidates, as well as legal representatives of the 37 political parties that appeared on the ballot, have been summoned to appear before the court in the coming days, with court president Caryslia Rodríguez warning of legal consequences for not showing up.

The hardline opposition campaign has not commented on the latest TSJ developments, though González did not appear when the court opened its case on Friday.

Instead, González and Machado issued a statement Monday unilaterally declaring the former as “president-elect” and calling on the police and armed forces to follow his orders. 

That position seemed at odds, however, with the updated stance from the US Department of State that appeared to walk back its earlier recognition of González as the victor of the presidential election.

In response to a question, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the Biden administration had not recognized González as president, a departure from the position assumed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken who declared González as the “winner” of the election.

Miller instead pointed to ongoing mediation efforts by Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. He further emphasized the need for Venezuela to “transition back to democratic norms”, stopping short of calling for González to take office. 

Leftist presidents Lula da Silva (Brazil), Petro (Colombia) and López Obrador (Mexico) have rejected foreign interference and emphasized Venezuelan sovereignty, as well as the need for all parties to pursue a Venezuelan-led solution to the dispute. At the same time, they have demanded greater transparency regarding the results.

In response to González’s and Machado’s statement, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said his office had opened a criminal investigation into both for charges including usurpation of official functions and instigation of insurrection. In Venezuela, only the CNE is constitutionally authorized to declare a winner in electoral contests.

The Venezuelan Defense and Interior ministers, Vladimir Padrino and Remigio Ceballos, likewise issued a joint communique on Tuesday afternoon rejecting the “desperate and seditious” calls from the US-backed opposition. The leaders of the armed and police forces vowed to keep the peace and reaffirmed its backing for the country’s institutions.

President Maduro has labeled the opposition’s ongoing efforts to reject the CNE’s results as a “coup attempt” led by the US. The dispute sparked protests in many Venezuelan cities last week that has reportedly left over a dozen dead. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino reported the death of two National Guard members and 106 injured officers. Since then, however, calm appears to have returned to the country’s streets, assuaging fears of a return of violent “guarimba” protests that were common following other electoral contests. 

Over the weekend, government supporters held peaceful rallies throughout the country, including a massive red-clad demonstration in the capital that marched from the city center to Miraflores Presidential Palace. 

The hardline opposition held its own rallies on Saturday, with far-right leader María Corina Machado addressing a modest crowd in the upper-class neighborhood of Las Mercedes in eastern Caracas.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.