Venezuela’s Supreme Court Excludes Parliament from Electoral Council

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Friday, the Venezuelan Supreme Court excluded the opposition majority in Congess from the National Electoral Council (CNE) renewal process. The Court’s Constitutional Chamber delivered a ruling declaring the existence of a “legislative omission” by the National Assembly to appoint the new electoral authorities.

Currently, the majority of the CNE’s officials have an affinity with the government of Nicolás Maduro. With the decision, the Venezuelan Supreme Court, known to be puppets of the Chavista regime, retains the power to appoint new members of the electoral authority and grants this body additional legal powers to regulate electoral processes.

The decision gains particular relevance considering that legislative elections are scheduled in the country this year, in accordance with the Constitution. Maduro stated that his government will do what is necessary to organize the referendum in December, “if the pandemic allows it”. Participation in the elections under the current political conditions is completely ruled out by the party alliance that supports Juan Guaidó, a majority in the opposition-controlled National Assembly.

Opposition leaders said that parliamentary elections should be organized under an agreement that also includes new presidential elections. Their interpretation, shared by most international observers, is that the May 2018 elections, in which Maduro was re-elected, were fraudulent; therefore, they were not recognized by virtually the whole international community.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is yet another blow to the Venezuelan legislature, in theory the one in charge of promoting the selection of CNE members and the court’s own magistrates. After the opposition won a broad victory in the last 2015 elections and secured the majority of seats, the National Assembly suffered over 20 vetoes from the Supreme Court and none of its laws came into force.

The Chamber, elected by some ten million people, has been stripped of its duties by the high court and some 30 deputies elected by the opposition are in exile.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of moderate opposition politicians: Claudio Fermín, Timóteo Zambrano, Luis Augusto Romero, Javier Bertucci, Felipe Mujica, Rafael Marín, Juan Alvarado and Segundo Meléndez.

They are all part of the so-called National Dialogue Table, a platform of minority parties without legislative presence, critics of Juan Guaidó’s performance and advocates of an agreement with the government to participate in elections organized on its terms. The group was severely criticized by the opposition for taking this position in the public debate.

The court’s ruling paves the way for a political agreement between chavista politicians and the members of this dialogue table regarding the selection of new officials, the organization and date of legislative elections, and now makes it very likely that the parliamentary elections promoted by Maduro will be organized this year.

A few weeks ago the Supreme Court had issued a sentence recognizing Luis Parra as president of the National Assembly. Parra is an opposition leader who organized a small dissident fraction of deputies, accused of corruption, who made a pact with chavismo to try to get Juan Guaidó out of the presidency of parliament in January.

With Parra’s ratification, in Guaidó’s ranks it was certain that the chavismo would seek a political agreement with the dissident fraction so that it would be Parliament that would nominate the new electoral officials. The Supreme Court simplified matters and decided to dispense with Parra, making the decisions on its own.

Source: El País