(Barinas) The Venezuelan justice canceled Monday the election of the governor in Barinas (west), stronghold of the Chavez family, requiring the holding of a new ballot in January without the main opponent, who claimed victory in this state.
Barinas is the only one of the 23 Venezuelan states whose results of the regional ballot on November 21 had not been formalized.
The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) “orders the National Electoral Council (CNE) to call governor elections in the state of Barinas on January 9,” according to the text of the court decision published on the TSJ website.
The TSJ indicates “that the projections recorded by the CNE give a percentage of vote in favor of the candidate (opponent) Freddy Superlano with 37.60% against 37.21% for the candidate Argenis Chavez”, brother of Hugo Chavez, but “considers that the ineligibility ”of Superlano“ violates the principles of equality, fairness and transparency ”of the elections.
According to the text, the TSJ is based on a request of August 17 from the Comptroller General of the Republic, responsible for monitoring the management of public funds.
Since the regional ballot on November 21, opposition as well as power declared themselves winners while the provisional results gave a very close score.
During the day, the TSJ had ordered the CNE “the immediate suspension of the counting process” until a decision on the merits of the case is taken.
The TSJ then indicated that Mr. Superlano was “the subject of administrative and criminal procedures and checks” and could not exercise “any public function”.
Since November 21, power and opposition supporters have rallied several times to claim victory.
On the evening of the vote, based on provisional results, the CNE had placed Argenis Chavez, outgoing governor, in the lead in this state of 970,000 inhabitants, with 37.05% of the vote.
Freddy Superlano was credited with 36.79%, the election being played with a few dozen votes.
But, more recent projections gave Superlano the winner.
At the national level, the CNE had announced, based on 90.21% of the results transmitted, the victory of President Nicolas Maduro’s party in 20 of the country’s 23 states. He has since formalized all the results except that of Barinas.
The court’s decision is “one more demonstration of the little will […] to rebuild an electoral road for a way out of the crisis, ”Mr. Superlano reacted on Monday when the vote count was suspended.
Argenis Chavez has repeatedly told him that he won the ballot.
The Barinas was governed by Hugo de Los Reyes Chavez, father of Hugo Chavez, from 1998 to 2008, then by Adan Chavez, brother of the ex-president until 2017, the year of the election of Argenis Chavez.
The EU observation mission highlighted on Tuesday several irregularities during the elections, citing “the lack of judicial independence, the non-adherence to the rule of law and the fact that certain laws have affected the equality of conditions, balance and transparency of elections ”.
She had also mentioned the “arbitrary” non-validation of certain candidatures.
President Maduro on Sunday accused the members of the mission of being “enemies” and “spies” who came “to sully the impeccable electoral process”, criticizing the “report full of improvisations and badly written”.