Venezuela's Supreme Court has backed President Nicolas Maduro's claims that he won last month's presidential election and said voting tallies published online showing he lost by a landslide were forged. The ruling is the latest attempt by Maduro to blunt protests and international criticism that erupted after the contested July 28 vote in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader was seeking a third, six-year term. The high court is packed with Maduro loyalists and has almost never ruled against the government, the AP reports.
Its decision, read Thursday in an event attended by senior officials and foreign diplomats, came in response to a request by Maduro to review vote totals showing he had won by more than 1 million votes. The main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal the vote. On Election Day, opposition volunteers managed to collect copies of voting tallies from 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, which show opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The official tally sheets printed by each voting machine carry a QR code that make it easy for anyone to verify the results and are almost impossible to replicate, per the AP.
The ruling certifying the results contradicts the findings of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center who were invited to observe the election. Both determined the results announced by authorities lacked credibility. Specifically, the outside experts noted that authorities didn't release a breakdown of results by each of the 30,000 voting booths nationwide, as they have in almost every previous election. The government has claimed — without evidence—that a foreign cyberattack by hackers from North Macedonia delayed the vote counting on election night and publication of the disaggregated results. González was the only one of 10 candidates who did not participate in the Supreme Court's audit, a fact noted by the justices, who accused him of trying to spread panic. The former diplomat went into hiding after the election as security forces arrested more than 2,000 people and cracked down on demonstrations protesting the results.
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