Supreme of Venezuela orders to repeat regional elections in Barinas, home state of Hugo Chávez

The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela announced this Monday the repetition of the regional elections in Barinas – birthplace of the late President Hugo Chávez – on January 9, after the November 21 elections yielded a tight result between Chavismo and the opposition.

The decision of the Supreme Court was made after receiving a constitutional protection action filed by the politician Adolfo Ramón Superlano, considered a dissident of the opposition, “For the alleged violation of the constitutional rights to participation and suffrage,” provided for in the Magna Carta and before “The climate of tension between the political militancies”.

The aforementioned violation of the “constitutional rights ” It is given, says the TSJ, by the nomination of the opponent Freddy Superlano, who, according to the statement, appeared despite being disqualified.

The high court had ordered this Monday afternoon to suspend the recount, after eight days of dispute between the official candidate and candidate for reelection, Argenis Chávez -brother of whom he was president from 1999 until his death in 2013-, and the opponent for the Table of Democratic Unity (MUD), Freddy Superlano, after obtaining a tight result that could not be settled.

Since the election day of November 21, only a single piece of information had been offered by the National Electoral Council (CNE) the same night of the elections, when it explained that the ruling party Chávez had up to that moment 93,097 votes, while Superlano counted with 92,424 votes.

In the absence of the scrutiny of 10% of the votes, that slim margin of 673 votes gave rise to multiple possibilities and, in the following days, Superlano claimed to have data that indicated that the situation had been reversed and it was he who led the count.

The latest statement from the Supreme Court, the same one that orders a repeat of the elections, also indicates that “The projections recorded by the CNE give a percentage of votes in favor of the candidate Freddy Superlano, of 37.60% with respect to the 37.21% of votes obtained by the candidate Argenis Chávez.”

Faced with this situation and failing to reach a consensus, the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court declared, “of mere right, the resolution of the constitutional protection action filed with a request for precautionary measure”And resolved to disqualify the opposition Superlano from the exercise of any public office.

The disqualification is announced after Superlano could register in the CNE’s automated system as a candidate, without the latter canceling his application by default in form or data, as he did with other applicants.

Given the circumstances, “a new electoral process is ordered in Barinas for the election of the position of governor or governor, in order to guarantee the right to active and passive participation of those who attended the electoral event “, reads the statement of the Supreme Court.

_________________________________