The Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) noted the absence of the former presidential candidate of the opposition extremists, Edmundo González Urrutia, after his refusal to appear before the highest court in the country despite being summoned to give statements on the electoral process of July 28.
“It is noted that citizen Edmundo González Urrutia has not appeared before the Electoral Chamber of the highest court,” announced Judge Caryslia Rodríguez, president of the TSJ.
The head of the judiciary also stated that the former candidate was also required to submit “what was required in the ruling of this jurisdictional body and has not attended the summons that was reported to him to be present today before this Electoral Chamber.”
The standard-bearer of the Venezuelan far right was also absent from an earlier event convened by the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday morning, González Urrutia published a communication on his social media where he expressed his refusal to attend the hearing scheduled by the TSJ, after claiming “defenselessness.”
Last week, the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, introduced before the Electoral Chamber of the TSJ a contentious appeal to know about the legality and constitutionality of any fact, act, performance, omission, abstention, of a legal person, private or public, or natural persons in the electoral process carried out on July 28.
Following the Executive’s request, the TSJ summoned the ten presidential candidates, as well as leaders of the different organizations with political purposes, in accordance with the provisions of article 85 of the Organic Law of the TSJ, articles 12 and 14 of the Civil Procedure Code, to hand over the electoral instruments in their possession, with the presence of the Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab.
Let us remember that the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) and some parties of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) that supported González Urrutia’s candidacy:
- They claimed fraud, they say they have evidence of victory but they did not submit it to the Electoral Chamber, which is the only authority to resolve an electoral controversy.
- They did not recognize the CNE before the elections by refusing to sign the agreement to recognize the results and now they are demanding that they publish the minutes.
- As part of the coup d’état and the insurrectional strategy of the extreme right, the CNE website is under cyber attack but they remain deathly silent.
