Opposition's National Primaries Commission (CNP) head, Jesús María Casal, entering the Attorney General's Office in Caracas. Photo: AFP.
The president of the National Primary Commission (CNP) of the Venezuelan opposition, Jesús María Casal, confessed before the Attorney General’s Office that María Corina Machado’s NGO Súmate inflated the results of the opposition primary elections held on October 20 to falsely show Machado as having received some 2 million votes.
This was reported by the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, during the broadcast of his TV program Con el Mazo Dando, on Wednesday, November 8.
According to Cabello, opposition leader María Corina Machado is “very angry” with Casal, because he revealed that Súmate had inflated the results.
“What a mess! María Corina considers Casal as a traitor, toad, and collaborationist, after he declared in court that the Súmate coalition committed fraud in the elections,” Cabello said.
🔴 Diosdado Cabello: María Corina dijo que Jesús María Casal es un traidor, un sapo y un colaboracionista.
🗣️ Casal confesó en la Fiscalía que Súmate infló los resultados de la primaria y que la logística solo funcionó en la capital y el centro del país. Dijo.
📌 El Mazo. pic.twitter.com/cPoQFVzDNT
— 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖 (@polianalitica) November 9, 2023
He explained that Jesús María Casal reported that the logistics of the voting process only worked in Caracas and the center of the country and failed everywhere else, which is why the media hired by Súmate mostly covered the voting in the municipalities of Chacao, Baruta, and El Hatillo, in the suburban region of Caracas.
Cabello further added that according to Casal’s statements, the opposition’s primaries were financed with large sums of money in dollars that came from Colombia, but the identity of who sent them is still unknown.
The CNP president and vice president were summoned to the Attorney General’s Office to give statements, following the complaints of opposition parliamentarian José Brito for alleged irregularities during the opposition primaries.
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Following Brito’s complaint, Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced an investigation against the CNP for various crimes, including usurpation of electoral functions.
María Corina Machado threatens to call for abstention
Cabello reported that during a meeting that Machado held with the regional leaders of her party, Vente Venezuela, she threatened them that “if she fell due to the issue of fraud in the primaries, they would fall with her.”
Machado also threatened that if the 15-year political ban on her is not lifted, “no one from the opposition could be candidate” for the 2024 presidential election, so they would have to call for abstention.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC/BLA
