Venezuelan President Threatens Election Results With Investigation
Less than a month after his party lost control of Venezuela's National Assembly, Socialist President Nicolas Maduro is investigating the Dec. 6 election which put the opposition coalition party in two-thirds of the house seats.
Maduro spoke about what he described as vote-buying on state television. "I am not going to release preliminary results of the investigation. ... There were a lot of things going on. Buying people's votes, ... control of members of polling station teams and entire polling station teams," said Maduro, according to AFP.
Jesus Torrealba, the secretary-general of the right-wing opposition Democratic Union Coalition, criticized Maduro for his move to investigate the election results. "You can't use legal tricks to steal something the voters didn't want to give you," said Torrealba. "We're not living in a functional democracy."
Concern over the possible impediments that stand between his party taking their seats in the assembly has lead Torrealba to send a letter to the Organization of American States, Mercosur, the United Nations, and the European Union asking for help.
Torrealba's letter asks these groups to ensure the political transition in Venezuela is a peaceful one.
"This peaceful road today is in danger," he writes, warning of a judicial coup d'etat.
On Dec. 29, the Venezuelan Supreme Court revealed that eight of the defeated candidates from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela had filed challenges to the election, BBC News reports
When members of the new National Assembly take up their seats on Jan. 5, 2016, it will mark the first time in 16 years that a conservative coalition will hold a majority in the legislative body.
However, if the Supreme Court upholds just one out of the eight appeals the party would lack the 112 seats required for a two-thirds supermajority.
There is no information on how long the Supreme Court will decide on the appeals.
Maduro has been clear that he would not let his party lose power easily.
As previously reported, the 53-year-old leader addressed the Venezuelan military days after the election and warned of an impending showdown due to the recent victory at the polls of the right-leaning opposition coalition.
"We're facing a large-scale crisis that is going to generate a power struggle between two poles: the patriots and the anti-patriots," he said.
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