MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

OAS rejects court ruling saying Maduro was reelected in Venezuela

It was also unthinkable to expect the Venezuelan CNE to hold free, fair, and transparent elections, the OAS noted

The Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretariat Friday issued a statement rejecting Thursday's ruling by Venezuela's Supreme Court (TSJ) whereby the incumbent President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of the July 28 polls and would therefore rule the South American country between 2025 and 2031.

According to the OAS, the TSJ, “proclaimed Maduro in a hurried manner, based on a partial bulletin issued orally, with numbers that showed mathematical impossibilities and without presenting the disaggregated results that, according to the law, must be tabulated table by table.”

“To this day, the CNE still has not published disaggregated results, as the opposition has done based on official tally sheets issued by the voting machines themselves on election day,” the Washington-based continental organization also underlined.

The OAS also underscored the opposition's “openness” in releasing the tally sheets collected during election day in contrast “with the total opacity of the [National Electoral Council - CNE] electoral authority and the TSJ,” which has focused on denouncing alleged conspiracy theories making unsubstantiated announcements.

According to the report of the Panel of Electoral Experts of the United Nations, “the announcement of the result of an election without the publication of its details or the disclosure of tabulated results to the candidates is unprecedented in contemporary democratic elections” and had “a negative impact on the confidence of the result announced by the CNE.” The panel underlined the absence of adequate procedures to guarantee the integrity and security of electoral materials, evidencing a notable lack of transparency and accessibility in electoral activities, which prevented effective public oversight, the OAS went on.

“This General Secretariat reiterates that there is no procedure in the Venezuelan legal system that allows the electoral authority to 'investigate and verify' the results, or to carry out expert appraisals of them. Both the Organic Law on Electoral Processes and the Organic Law on Electoral Power exclusively attribute to the CNE the function of totaling, adjudicating, and proclaiming the results of the presidential election,” the OAS insisted.

”The United Nations (UN) Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela indicated that both the TSJ and the CNE lack impartiality and independence and have played a role within the State's repressive machinery,“ the continental organization also pointed out. ”Other international organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and the International Commission of Jurists have warned about the TSJ's lack of independence,“ it went on.

”It is clearly evident that Nicolás Maduro judicialized the electoral process in order to seek a seal of 'legitimacy' from a biased court,“ the declaration stressed while highlighting Venezuelan people's plight ”amid a brutal wave of repression.”