Venezuela’s Supreme Court Validates Stolen Elections
As expected by all concerned, today’s announcement tries to close the door on any challenges and leave Maduro in power until 2031.
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – The Venezuelan Supreme Court today completed the orders of President Nicolas Maduro, who called on them to proclaim him reelected president in the blatantly fraudulent elections on July 28, when he lost in a 67-30% landslide but was declared the winner.
As expected by all concerned, today’s announcement tries to close the door on any challenges and leave Maduro in power until 2031. The main opposition leader Marina Corina Machado, candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, and all other voices claiming fraud, are being threatened with prosecution for “fascism and terrorism”, charges the president uses for anyone challenging his authority.
The campaign of the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez published their copy of the signed and sealed printouts of the precinct-by-precinct tally sheets a day after the elections. Now, 25 days later, the National Electoral Council has not published or audited the detailed results as required by law. On election night the president of the Electoral Council proclaimed Maduro the undisputed winner supposedly based on their partial returns.
By July 29th, the only approved international elections observers, the Carter Center, plus a UN observation mission, had called on the Electoral Council to publish the precinct-by-precinct results. Numerous governments in the Americas and Europe, including several allies of Maduro, echoed that request making it clear they could not consider Maduro the winner without the proof backing his claim of victory.
In the days that followed several international media and election analysts, including data experts, confirmed the validity of the tally sheets published by the opposition after most poll witnesses received their copy at the polling places on election night as stipulated by law.
At first, Maduro had said he would release the detailed results in a few days. Then Jorge Rodriguez, his campaign manager and head of the National Assembly, said there was no need to publish the voting result tally sheets at all.
As the days dragged on Maduro decided to ask his supreme court magistrates, who backed his candidacy, to give the final word, bypassing the duty of the Electoral Council to publish the detailed results and carry out the usual sample audit of those results.
Today, August 22, they said indeed Maduro had won with 51.95% of the votes as had been proclaimed by the Electoral Council on election night without proof or even having the entire tally sheets registered and in their system.
The citizen protests that followed the fraudulent declaring of Maduro reelected on the night of July 28th led the government to send the police and paramilitary out in the streets, with a result, according to them, of 25 dead, hundreds injured and over 2,400 protestors arrested and being charge as “terrorists” for not recognizing the stolen election.
The battle for a peaceful transition from the Maduro government to the victorious opposition is just beginning. If might makes right Maduro can probably hang on by upping the repression. However, he now knows that he is extremely unpopular with all segments of the population, something his arrogance hadn’t allowed to cross his mind before the election.
The example of what has happened in Venezuela is also an alarm bell for other countries where the electoral, judicial and legislative powers are, or could be, totally controlled by the executive.
As Richard M.Nixon said: “But I am not a crook”