In an unsurprising ruling, the regime-dominated Venezuelan Supreme Court has sided with President Nicolás Maduro’s claims he won last month’s election and said voting tallies published online showing he lost by a landslide were fake.
In a courtroom packed with Maduro supporters, the decision was read Thursday in response to a request made by Maduro to review vote totals showing he had won by more than 1 million votes.
The court’s ruling certifying the results contradicts the findings of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center who were invited to observe the election and who both determined the results announced by authorities lacked credibility.
The main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal the vote.
Venezuela's government officials have claimed a foreign cyberattack staged by hackers from North Macedonia delayed the vote counting on election night and publication of the results, but they have not provided any evidence.
Gabriel Boric, the leftist president of Chile and one of the main critics of Maduro’s election scam, blasted the high court’s certification.
"Today, Venezuela’s TSJ has finally consolidated the fraud," he said on his account, referring to the initials of the high court. "The Maduro regime obviously welcomes with enthusiasm its ruling… there is no doubt that we are facing a dictatorship that falsifies elections."
The ruling is the latest attempt by Maduro to blunt protests and international criticism that erupted after the contested July 28 vote in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader was seeking a third, six-year term, The Associated Press reported.
Maduro is widely believed to have fraudulently won his country's election last month. Numerous regional governments cast doubt on the official vote tally, which showed Maduro with 51.2% of the vote with 80% of polling stations reporting.
The opposition contends the results are not accurate and claims that it won the election with 70% of the vote.
"In Venezuela, an occupied territory of the Axis of Evil, the judicial system is essentially non-existent due to the complete absence of the rule of law," Isaias Medina III, a former U.N. Security Council diplomat and Harvard Mason fellow, told Fox News Digital.
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"The separation of powers was effectively dismantled when Chavismo took control, resulting in ‘courts’ with unqualified personnel that are merely extensions of Maduro's regime, parroting his dictates without independent judgment or integrity. The courts are a third-rate play, directed by Maduro, who pays their bills."
Polls taken over the course of the summer consistently showed opposition candidate Edmundo González winning by double-digit margins.
González was the only one of ten candidates who did not participate in the Supreme Court’s audit, a fact noted by the justices, who in their ruling accused him of trying to spread panic, the AP reported.
When the National Electoral Council announced around midnight that Maduro had received 51% of the vote compared to main opposition candidate González's 44% support, National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso said the results were based on 80% of voting stations and represented an irreversible trend.
"For the past two decades, the socialists completely destroyed the division of powers in Venezuela. Just like the former Soviet Union, Maduro controls and leads not only the executive branch but also the parliament, electoral commission and Supreme Court," Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan and president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital.
"This process began in the 2000s, when former President Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013) packed the Supreme Court with loyalists. In fact, there are shocking videos of Supreme Court judges chanting songs that belong to the Venezuelan Socialist Party. Ultimately, it shows that the Venezuelan crisis cannot be resolved using the institutions of the country, as these are completely loyal to Maduro and are responsible for the political crisis we live in today."
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Despite Maduro being declared the winner for a third term, the opposition claimed victory, setting up a showdown with the government over the results.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., condemned the result and criticized the policies of the Biden administration.
"Another foreign policy fiasco from the Biden-Harris team," he wrote on X. "They gave Maduro relief from Trump oil sanctions and released his top money launderer & his two convicted drug dealer nephews in exchange for a ‘promise’ to hold fair elections monitored by neutral international observers."
Officials and lawmakers in the U.S. and elsewhere expressed concern about the legitimacy of Venezuela's presidential election results after Maduro was declared the winner.
A bipartisan group of congressional leaders also alleged that Maduro's victory was fraudulent.
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"To no one’s surprise, dictator Nicolás Maduro has once again stolen a presidential election. However, what the narco-regime will never steal is the Venezuelan people’s desire to return to democracy and live in freedom after decades of tyranny.
"We must prioritize uniting the free world in rejecting these sham election results and securing the release of the more than 300 Venezuelans that remain arbitrarily detained in torture centers as political prisoners."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously said the Biden administration has "serious concerns" about the results and insisted they do not "reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people."
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Protests broke out across the country on both sides after the announcement last month.
Venezuelans took to the streets to protest what is widely believed to be a rigged election. The protests started peacefully, but riot gear-equipped police escalated the matter, leading to violence both from the protesters and the police.
Protesters threw objects, including stones, at the police, while police used tear gas on the crowds in an effort to make them disperse.
Maduro dismissed the pushback against his victory as an "attempt … to impose a coup d’etat in Venezuela," adding that "we already know this movie, and this time, there will be no kind of weakness." Maduro added that Venezuela’s "law will be respected."
Fox News Digital's Landon Mion, Peter Aitken, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
