Attorney General of Venezuela Tarek William Saab announced this Wednesday that he is launching an investigation into the opposition primaries on Sunday, October 22, for the alleged crimes of "electoral violations, identity theft, money laundering and conspiracy to commit a crime."
"The primaries were a joke, a kind of prop theater meant to not only deceive not only one person out of the good faith of people who turned out to vote (…) There the will of those people who came to express their will," Saab said at a press conference.
Tarek William Saab: Por este motivo, serán citados como investigados el Presidente y la Vice presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Primarias: Jesús María Casa y Mildred Camero, respectivamente
— Ministerio Público venezolano (@MinpublicoVEN) October 25, 2023
"For this reason, the President and Vice President of the National Primary Commission will be cited as investigated: Jesús María Casa and Mildred Camero, respectively."
Furthermore, he claimed that "the most serious thing about all this is that the National Electoral Council, which is the only guarantor of constitutionality and of helping political organizations, was left aside."
"All Venezuelans must remember that there is an automated electoral system, considered one of the best in the world for its security and audibility, which respects the principle of 'one voter, one vote," said the prosecutor without mentioning that the international community does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as president precisely because he considers that no elections have been held with the necessary democratic guarantees.
Nearly two million Venezuelans – 92.35% of the total – voted for María Corina Machado, the only right-wing candidate, in the opposition primaries on Sunday. A total of 91.31% of the ballots have been counted, according to the third and last newsletter from the National Primary Commission (CNP).
The commission explained that the results will be available on its website, where citizens will be able to access the digitized ballots from each of the voting stations.
