Jesus Maria Casal, president of the Opposition Primary Commission, front right, arrives to the Attorney General's office where he was summoned about the opposition's recent primary elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into primary organizers on charges including identity fraud and usurping authority and the government has maintained a ban on the primary winner from running for office. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
People line up to vote in the opposition primary election that was later denounced as illegal by the government, in Caracas, Venezuela, on a rainy Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. Organized by the National Primary Commission, the election drew more than 2.4 million voters in Venezuela and abroad and was aimed at choosing a candidate to run against President Nicolás Maduro next year. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Jesus Maria Casal, president of the Opposition Primary Commission, front right, arrives to the Attorney General's office where he was summoned about the opposition's recent primary elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into primary organizers on charges including identity fraud and usurping authority and the government has maintained a ban on the primary winner from running for office. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
AC
People line up to vote in the opposition primary election that was later denounced as illegal by the government, in Caracas, Venezuela, on a rainy Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. Organized by the National Primary Commission, the election drew more than 2.4 million voters in Venezuela and abroad and was aimed at choosing a candidate to run against President Nicolás Maduro next year. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s high court on Monday suspended the opposition's entire primary election process, including its result, and ordered organizers to hand in documents identifying millions of voters, in the latest challenge by the government of President Nicolás Maduro to its adversaries ahead of the 2024 presidential vote.
The court ruled the may be in violation of the law. It was not immediately clear whether the suspension would effectively result in the nullification of the primary vote.
The Associated Press could not immediately seek clarification from the head of the National Primary Commission, Jesús MarÃa Casal, as he entered the attorney general’s office minutes after the ruling was issued. The commission is an independent body that formed to organize the opposition’s primary.
Maduro and his allies have all year, but they escalated their attacks after the election exceeded participation expectations. More than 2.4 million Venezuelans in the country and abroad voted, including in areas once considered strongholds of the ruling party.
“All effects of the different phases of the electoral process conducted by the National Primary Commission are suspended,†the court said in its ruling issued shortly before Casal and other organizers were set to be interviewed by prosecutors regarding the primary.
The court ordered organizers to hand over all ballots, tally sheets and, crucially, so-called voting notebooks, which were signed by every voter after poll workers verified their identity. It also ratified the bans imposed by Maduro’s government on three candidates, including winner , on running for office.
Voters waited in line for hours either under the scorching sun or a downpour to cast ballots at voting centers set up in schools, homes and businesses volunteered by their owners as well as parks and plazas. They downloaded apps to circumvent internet censorship and find their voting center, and they improvised when one ran out of ballots and another did not have enough tables.
At least 2.3 million people voted within Venezuela and more than 132,000 did so abroad. Machado, a former lawmaker and longtime government foe, obliterated the competition and was officially declared the winner Thursday after earning more than 90% of the vote.
The challenges to the primary come even though Maduro's government agreed in principle, days before the election, to let the opposition choose its candidate for the 2024 presidential election. The agreement was part of a deal signed between the government and a faction of the opposition backed by the U.S. But Maduro’s government has in the past bent the law, and breached agreements as it sees fit.
“It is more or less as if I said, I ask that you suspend the demolition of the house, and then the court, without hearing the other party, prohibits the demolition, subject to a series of elements being subsequently proven in the main trial,†Adrian said. “But what if they already knocked down the house? An action of this nature should never have been granted.â€
She also questioned the court's demand for voter notebooks given that “what Brito requested, which was to suspend the (primary), has already occurred.â€
That demand could reignite Venezuelans' long-held fears over voter secrecy.
In 2004, a pro-government lawmaker posted online the names of millions of people who had signed a petition to get on the ballot a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. Many who were on the list said they lost government jobs and assistance after their names became public.
Casal and other primary organizers were summoned to appear Monday before prosecutors days after Attorney General Tarek William Saab , including that the National Primary Commission usurped the duties of a government entity.
The Venezuelan Academy of Political and Social ¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àûs in a statement Monday said the primaries constituted “a civic event†in line with the Venezuelan constitution and “did not constitute an usurpation of the functions of the (National Electoral Council).â€
“The actions of the Public Ministry and the Supreme Court of Justice represent an attack on the constitutional and legal order, on democracy itself and on the citizens who civically participated in said process," the academy said.
____
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
