MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelan Supreme Court's ruling on elections not open for appeals

The TSJ's Electoral Chamber ”is the highest judicial instance in electoral matters, Justice Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez explained

Venezuela's Supreme Court (TSJ) Chief Justice Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez warned that the ruling on the July 28 polls would be definitive and binding. In other words, the decision will be not open to appeals and must be enforced.

“This Electoral Chamber continues with the expertise initiated on August 5, 2024, for the purpose of producing the definitive sentence that responds to the present appeal, which will have the character of res judicata,” Rodríguez stressed. The TSJ's Electoral Chamber “is the highest judicial instance in electoral matters, therefore its decisions are unappealable and of mandatory compliance,” she explained.

She also mentioned that the TSJ had finished collecting the “electoral instruments of the different factors participating in the presidential election process held on July 28” and now the court's magistrates “are focused on the expertise of all the electoral material of evidential value recorded in physical and/or digital format.” The judges will also review the alleged “mass cyberattack” against the National Electoral Council's system with the help of “highly qualified and suitable personnel,” she added.

All participating candidates except Edmundo González Urrutia appeared before the TSJ last week.

In addition, Venezuelan authorities denounced the alleged “cyber coup” before the United Nations. Caracas' dignitary Joaquín Pérez Ayesterán assured before the UN Convention against Cybercrime that “the Venezuelan electoral system was the victim of more than 30 million cyber-attacks per minute,” after which “massive attacks against all Venezuelan governmental portals” were perpetrated.

“Such actions, which we denounce today once again, are part of a clear destabilization operation that aimed, on the one hand, to generate an information blackout and, on the other hand, to consolidate a coup d'état,” said Pérez Ayesterán.

In a separate development, Venezuelan Transport Minister Ramón Velásquez Araguayán said Sunday that cyber attacks by the “Anonymous” group had been performed against the systems of flag carrier Conviasa and Caracas' Metro network.

“We denounce once again that we have been the target of attacks by the hacktivist collective Anonymous, against the web portal of our flagship airline Conviasa, which we have managed to neutralize with our technical teams,” Velásquez Araguayán said on Instagram. He also mentioned that the maneuver has led to a collapse in railway services, which were promptly restored.