Venezuela‘s highest court has rejected an appeal by opposition leader Henrique Capriles that contested April’s presidential election result.
The Supreme Court of Justice described the appeal as inadmissible, according to the BBC.
After the ruling Capriles tweeted that there was a “lack of justice” in Venezuela, the BBC reports.
Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s handpicked successor, won the election by less than 1.5 percentage points – about 200,000 votes and the opposition alleged that the vote had been marred by fraud.
According to the BBC:
“In June, the Venezuelan National Electoral Commission (CNE) confirmed President Maduro’s victory in an audit on millions of votes, but Capriles denounced the audit as ‘a fake.’
“In her ruling on Wednesday, Justice Gladys Gutierrez said the opposition had not offered ‘sufficient proof’ to back up their allegations.
“The 10-point appeal had been lodged by Capriles, the opposition coalition and several citizens.”
Venezuela Opposition Claims New Government Crackdown
ABC News reports:
“Venezuelan authorities ordered the arrest of a close aide to opposition leader Capriles and military agents removed documents, computers and cellphones from the aide’s apartment Wednesday, the opposition said.
“It called the action proof of a new wave of political repression.
“Venezuela’s highest court, meanwhile, rejected Capriles’ bid to void the April 14 presidential election, which he narrowly lost to ruling party candidate Nicolas Maduro.
“It also fined Capriles $1,700 for what it called a ‘disrespectful’ filing and asked the attorney general to prosecute the opposition leader for filing the petition.
“The 12-party MUD opposition coalition did not elaborate on the government’s stated reason for issuing the arrest warrant for Oscar Lopez, the chief of staff to Capriles in the Miranda State Governor’s Office.
“Maduro had announced earlier in the day that the government ‘today captured a chief of the corruption and of the mafias of the Venezuelan right.’ He did not identify the person but said ‘he was caught red-handed.'”
