US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement saying that Washington concludes, based on “overwhelming evidence,” that the opponent Edmundo Gonzalez He was the winner of the presidential elections July 28 in Venezuela.
Venezuelan electoral authorities announced on Sunday night that with 80 percent of the votes counted, the winner was President Nicolás Maduro with 51.2 percent, and since then they have not provided a complete count, which raised suspicions of fraud in the United States, which had been cautious until it knew the detailed data by polling station, which Caracas has not provided.
Just on Wednesday, Maduro asked the Venezuelan Supreme Court to investigate the results of the disputed elections and said that his government will present all the voting records. He called for an “expert appraisal of the results” and for an investigation into a cyber attack on the National Electoral Council (CNE).
“I submit to justice,” the president said. The CNE, controlled by the ruling party, gave Maduro the victory on Monday amid a strong wave of protests in the country. This would be his third term as president.
Venezuelan Supreme Court summons presidential candidates to appear on Friday
The Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela summoned the 10 candidates for the presidential elections last Sunday to appear before this body this Friday, August 2, as part of an investigation requested by Madurowho must also attend the summons.
The president of the chamber, Chavista Caryslia Rodríguez, declared “competent” the appeal introduced this Wednesday by the head of State in which he asked to clarify “everything that needs to be clarified” about the elections, whose result by the National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified his victory despite allegations of fraud by the majority opposition and leaders of other Latin American countries.
In this regard, he announced the opening of an “investigation and verification process to certify, in an unrestricted manner, the official results,” announced on Monday by the CNE when 20 percent of the votes were still pending.
Therefore, the Electoral Chamber of the highest court called for Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia -standard-bearer of the majority opposition-, Javier Bertucci, Benjamin Rausseo, Daniel Ceballos, Claudio Fermin, Antonio Ecarri, Luis Eduardo Martinez, Jose Brito and Enrique Marquez, in addition to Maduro, at 2:00 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT) this Friday.
With information from AP.