Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) suspended the results of the country’s opposition primary elections and disqualified three candidates from running for office, according to a Monday decision on the TSJ website.
The decision cites the “unconstitutional and illegal acts of the National Primary Commission” as justifying the suspension of “all the effects of the different phases of the electoral process conducted by the National Primary Commission.” The National Primary Commission held primary elections on October 22 and elected Maria Corina Machado with over 93 percent of the vote. The primary body was directed to provide the court with voting notebooks, election ballots and minutes of the primary.
The complainant, José Dionisio Brito Rodríguez (Brito), is a lawmaker who is not running for president of Venezuela. Brito is sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control for trying to “illegitimately seize control of the National Assembly” on behalf of Nicolas Maduro.
The US State Department recently lauded the signing of an “electoral roadmap” between Venezuela’s Unitary Platform and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a press release. The US stated its understanding that Venezuela would “define a specific timeline and process for the expedited reinstatement of all [Presidential] candidates.” The TSJ decision comes less than two weeks after the signing of this “electoral roadmap.” In exchange for Venezuelan authorities’ agreement with the plan, the US agreed to lift sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector as well as its gold sector, which is state-operated. The press release states that “failure to abide by the terms of this arrangement will lead the United States to reverse steps we have taken.”
This is not the first time this year that Venezuela has tried disqualifying Machado from the office of president. In addition to Machado, the TSJ disqualified Freddy Superlano and Henrique Capriles from candidacy.