Venezuela: Maduro Asks Maduro-Controlled Courts to Review Maduro’s Sham Election

The socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, requested on Wednesday the country’s top courts — loyal to him — to “review” the July 28 sham presidential election, which Maduro claims he “won.”

The Maduro regime controls Venezuela’s five branches of government and, as a result, the South American nation does not have separation of powers and lacks an independent and transparent judiciary system. Its top court, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), is at the complete service of the socialist dictator and his authoritarian regime.

“The appeal is for the Electoral Chamber to settle this attack on the electoral process and clarify everything that needs to be clarified,” Maduro said.

He continued:

In view of the psychological war in social networks and on media, I go to the TSJ to summon, as is its faculty, all the institutions, Electoral Power, Executive Power, Moral Power, Prosecutor’s Office, summon all the presidential candidates, the 38 parties, and completely check what has been this attack.

The socialist dictator claimed that he expects the Venezuelan top court to certify the results of the sham election “with an expertise of the highest technical level” and, to that end, he is willing to be “summoned, questioned, investigated, by the Electoral Chamber.”

“I show my face, I submit myself to justice,” Maduro said.

Venezuela’s top electoral authority, the National Electoral Center (CNE) — also controlled by Maduro — declared the ruling dictator the “winner” of a highly controversial sham election held on Sunday, in which he was “reelected” for a six-year term after allegedly obtaining 51 percent of the vote.

CNE, without publishing any kind of finalized results, rushed to hastily “certify” the election on Monday, less than 24 hours after polls had closed on Sunday. No detailed “results” have been published by the Venezuelan electoral authorities at press time.

Maduro, who appeared 13 times on the ballot, “competed” on Sunday against eight other hand-picked rivals and Edmundo González, a 74-year-old former diplomat and the only legitimate opposition candidate that CNE allowed to be on the ballot.

The opposition’s frontrunner candidate, former lawmaker María Corina Machado, was not allowed to participate and remains banned from running for public office as punishment for having supported international sanctions against Maduro and his regime. The TSJ ruled to uphold Machado’s ban in January.

The Venezuelan opposition has contested the results of Sunday’s election. Machado and other leading members of the Venezuelan opposition have said they are in possession of sufficient certified vote tallies obtained from voting centers across the country that demonstrate the CNE manipulated the results and Maduro is trying to steal the election. 

The tallies, according to the opposition, show that González won in an overwhelming landslide. The opposition has begun publishing digital versions of the tallies online and have begun publishing detailed vote breakdowns that allegedly demonstrate González’s victory.

The sham election’s results have been called into question by several countries and international organizations, who have urged the CNE to release the results and to allow them to be verified. Countries such as Argentina and Chile have denounced the sham election as fraudulent, while Peru announced on Tuesday that it recognizes González as the legitimate president-elect of Venezuela.

During an emergency session of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols stated that the United States recognizes González as the winner of Sunday’s sham election based on the tallies obtained by the opposition. Nichols urged other countries to recognize González’s victory.

“Given the overwhelming evidence obtained by documented proof of millions of votes cast, Maduro and his representatives must recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of the July 28 presidential election,” Nichols said. “Given the clear evidence, the governments of the world should also recognize the overwhelming electoral victory of Edmundo Gonzalez.”

The situation has led to nationwide protests that have been met with brutal repression by Maduro security forces. At least a dozen people have been killed in those protests as of Thursday. Reports from the Venezuelan non-governmental organization Foro Penal indicate that, as of Thursday morning, at least 11 people have been confirmed dead and police have conducted 672 arbitrary arrests. Maduro’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab claimed on Wednesday that 1,062 people have been arrested so far for their participation in the protests.

Watch: Billboard of Maduro Set Ablaze Amid Venezuelan Election Protests

Venezuela’s top court, stacked in its entirety with pro-socialist judges, is completely loyal to Maduro and his regime. In late December 2015, days before the opposition-led National Assembly was seated at the start of 2016, socialist lawmakers appointed 13 new justices. The socialist justices proceeded to strip the opposition-led National Assembly of its powers and functions, leaving hollow what was then the last democratically elected institution in Venezuela.

The opposition-led National Assembly was ultimately ousted by the ruling socialists in a sham parliamentary election held in December 2020.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.