Venezuela’s top court says opposition failed to submit proof in poll dispute

Caracas — Venezuela’s supreme court on Saturday said that it had not received evidence from the opposition coalition in the disputed July 28 presidential elections and warned that its decision in determining the winner would be final.

The South American nation’s elections authority, which the opposition claims is loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, declared the leader had won re-election, while the opposition argues its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won.

The electoral authority has not released a detailed vote count from the elections and its website has been down since the early hours of July 29. The opposition has posted its ballot count online, which shows Gonzalez receiving double the number of votes as Maduro.

In Venezuela, voting machines print out three copies of voting records for the electoral authority, the ruling party and its challenger. Maduro appealed to the supreme court last week to verify the electoral results, leading the court to summon all candidates who had run.

Gonzalez did not attend, saying he would be at risk of arrest if he went. Members of the opposition who did go pressured the electoral authority to release its ballots, and the coalition has previously said it has its ballots locked up for safekeeping.

“The members of the Unitary Platform (opposition coalition) did not submit any electoral material” to the court, chief justice Caryslia Rodriguez told journalists and diplomats on Saturday.

The court did receive Maduro and the electoral body’s vote counts, Rodriguez said.

The chief justice said that once the election investigation was concluded, the court’s ruling would be “unappealable and compliance will be mandatory”.

Brazil, Colombia and Mexico published a joint statement on Thursday urging the electoral body to publicly present a detailed vote count and said that the supreme court was not a solution to the matter.

Other Latin American nations, as well as the US, have rejected Maduro’s win. Ally nations Russia and China have congratulated him.

Reuters