Venezuela’s primary election process, results suspended
High court cites the possible violation of law
CARACAS — Venezuela’s high court on Monday suspended the opposition’s entire primary election process, including its result, and ordered organizers to hand in documents identifying millions of voters, in the latest challenge by the government of President Nicolás Maduro to its adversaries ahead of the 2024 presidential vote.
The court ruled the opposition’s Oct. 22 contest may be in violation of the law. It was not immediately clear whether the suspension would effectively result in the nullification of the primary vote.
The Associated Press could not immediately seek clarification from the head of the National Primary Commission, Jesús María Casal, as he entered the attorney general’s office minutes after the ruling was issued. The commission is an independent body that was formed to organize the opposition’s primary.
Maduro and his allies have ridiculed and minimized the primary all year, but they escalated their attacks after the election exceeded participation expectations. More than 2.4 million Venezuelans in the country and abroad voted, including in areas once considered strongholds of the ruling party.
“All effects of the different phases of the electoral process conducted by the National Primary Commission are suspended,” the court said in its ruling issued shortly before Casal and other organizers were set to be interviewed by prosecutors regarding the primary.
The court ordered organizers to hand over all ballots, tally sheets, and, crucially, so-called voting notebooks, which were signed by every voter after poll workers verified their identity. It also ratified the bans imposed by Maduro’s government on three candidates, including winner María Corina Machado, on running for office.
Voters waited in line for hours, either under the scorching sun or a downpour, to cast ballots at voting centers set up in schools, homes, and businesses volunteered by their owners, as well as parks and plazas. They downloaded apps to circumvent internet censorship and find their voting center, and they improvised when one ran out of ballots and another did not have enough tables.
At least 2.3 million people voted within Venezuela and more than 132,000 did so abroad. Machado, a former lawmaker and longtime government foe, obliterated the competition and was officially declared the winner Thursday after earning more than 90 percent of the vote.
The challenges to the primary come even though Maduro’s government agreed in principle, days before the election, to let the opposition choose its candidate for the 2024 presidential election. The agreement was part of a deal signed between the government and a faction of the opposition backed by the US. But Maduro’s government has in the past bent the law, retaliated against opponents, and breached agreements as it sees fit.
The court’s ruling issued Monday was in response to an appeal filed before the primary took place by a virtually unknown lawmaker, José Brito, who claimed he was not allowed to participate in the contest. Tamara Adrián, an attorney, law professor, and primary candidate, said the court should not have admitted the appeal in the first place because it did not meet legal requirements, and now the ruling “does not preserve any of Brito’s rights.”
“It is more or less as if I said, I ask that you suspend the demolition of the house, and then the court, without hearing the other party, prohibits the demolition, subject to a series of elements being subsequently proven in the main trial,” Adrian said. “But what if they already knocked down the house? An action of this nature should never have been granted.”
She also questioned the court's demand for voter notebooks given that “what Brito requested, which was to suspend the (primary), has already occurred.”