Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who claims to be the rightful winner of the country’s presidential election, on Wednesday defied a court summons over the disputed results.
Election authorities declared Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the July 28 vote without releasing detailed results, prompting the opposition to cry foul and sparking protests last week that left at least 24 people dead, rights groups said.
Multiple countries, including the US and several Latin American nations, have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner and have called on Venezuela to publish election data.
Photo: AFP
Maduro, who has called for Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to be locked up, took the dispute to the Venezuelan Supreme Court to have his victory “validated.”
Election authorities said they had handed the election data to the court.
The 74-year-old Gonzalez Urrutia, who had been summoned to appear in court on Wednesday morning, said he doubted how impartial the procedure would be.
“I will be jeopardizing not only my freedom, but, more importantly, the will of the Venezuelan people expressed on July 28,” he wrote on social media.
He said that Maduro has stated “that if I do not appear, I will incur legal responsibilities, and that if I appear and file copies [of voting records], there will also be serious criminal responsibilities.”
The president of the court, Caryslia Rodriguez, noted his “failure to comply with the summons.”
Other representatives of the opposition coalition did appear, such as Zulia Governor Manuel Rosales, who demanded the election authority “publish the final results.”
The opposition has launched a Web site with copies of 84 percent of ballots cast, showing an easy win for Gonzalez Urrutia.
The government said that those results were forged.
Simon Calzadilla, of the Movement for Venezuela who also supported Gonzalez Urrutia, said that “no political party knows, 11 days after the election, what the result of the vote was.”
He also questioned the court’s jurisdiction in certifying the results.
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