CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González will not appear before the country's high court Wednesday for a hearing related to an election audit requested by President Nicolás Maduro, his campaign said.
Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice on Monday ordered González, who represented the main opposition parties, Maduro and the other eight candidates in the July 28 presidential election to attend hearings scheduled through Friday.
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Opposition politicians Manuel Rosales, center, Jose Cartaya, left, and Simon Calzadilla, right, leave the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Opposition politicians Manuel Rosales, speaking, Jose Cartaya, left, and Simon Calzadilla, right, address the press outside the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Opposition politicians Manuel Rosales, center, Jose Cartaya, left, and Simon Calzadilla, right, leave the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Opposition politicians Manuel Rosales, speaking, Jose Cartaya, left, and Simon Calzadilla, right, address the press outside the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrive at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
The Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado talks to presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez during a press conference after electoral authorities declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
The hearings follow days of global criticism of Maduro and his loyal National Electoral Council over the election results. Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but have yet to produce voting tallies. Meanwhile, the opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 electronic voting machines nationwide showing he lost.
González was first on the list, but in a statement posted on social media, he questioned the legality of the proceedings and expressed serious concerns over his safety.
“I will put at risk not only my freedom but, more importantly, the will of the Venezuelan people expressed on July 28, 2024 and the gigantic effort of the Venezuelans who have participated in this process so that we could obtain evidence of the vote validly cast by the citizens,” he said.
It is unclear whether González could face legal consequences over his decision to not appear for the scheduled hearing.
Judge Caryslia Rodríguez, president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice and its electoral court, during a nationally televised hearing on Monday warned that failure to appear would entail the corresponding consequences provided by law but did not give any details.
González's name and photo appeared three times on the July 28 ballot, each for every party he represented: Democratic Unity Table, A New Time Party and Movement for Venezuela. Although González said he would not appear at the tribunal, representatives of the three parties did so.
"We faced an exhaustive interrogation separately,” Manuel Rosales, founder of A New Time Party, told reporters about Wednesday's hearing.
Meanwhile, José Simón Calzadilla, of Movement for Venezuela, described the court's audit process as “irregular” and insisted that government institutions must “put themselves at the service of transparency" and demand that the electoral council comply with its obligation to release detailed results.
“We left this high court with more doubts than when we arrived, and it was not made clear to us what we were doing or what this questioning by the magistrates was for,” he said.
Maduro, who appeared 13 times on the ballot, is last on the list of hearings Rodríguez announced.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Opposition politicians Manuel Rosales, center, Jose Cartaya, left, and Simon Calzadilla, right, leave the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Opposition politicians Manuel Rosales, speaking, Jose Cartaya, left, and Simon Calzadilla, right, address the press outside the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrive at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
The Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. The country's high court is conducting an audit of the disputed, July 28 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado talks to presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez during a press conference after electoral authorities declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump's pick of conservative loyalist Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general has Democrats sounding the alarm with Sen. Dick Durbin saying Gaetz “would be a disaster” in part because of Trump’s threat to use the Justice Department “to seek revenge on his political enemies.”
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
Democrat Janelle Bynum won election to a U.S. House seat representing Oregon on Thursday, defeating Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
The district, which includes the Portland suburbs and stretches through Bend, was a top target for Democrats. Democrats lost this seat in 2022, when Jamie McLeod-Skinner defeated seven-term Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader in the primary but lost the general election. The district took in parts of more conservative central Oregon after 2022 redistricting.
Bynum represents Happy Valley and North Clackamas in the state Legislature. The Associated Press declared Bynum the winner at 12:47 p.m. EST.
Republican and Democratic senators alike on the Judiciary Committee that would review Matt Gaetz’s attorney general nomination are calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz to be made available to them.
“I think it’s going to be material in the proceedings,” said Sen. Thomas Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said, “I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democrat who currently chairs the Judiciary Committee, earlier Thursday said in a statement, “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”
Thune did not mention Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard or other Trump picks that have raised deep concerns among several senators.
But he said senators should expect “an aggressive schedule until his nominees are confirmed.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve information it's gathered on former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s intended nominee for attorney general, and also share it with the Senate.
Trump announced Gaetz as his pick for the post Wednesday and Gaetz immediately resigned from Congress, ending the investigation against him. The ethics panel said several months ago that its review included whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. Gaetz has categorically denied all the allegations before the committee.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” Durbin said Thursday. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”
The Democrat looking to unseat an incumbent Republican in a close Iowa congressional race, one of a handful yet to be called after Republicans won control of the U.S. House, has asked for a recount.
Democrat Christina Bohannan’s campaign on Thursday requested the recount in her bid against Republican incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks to represent Iowa’s 1st District. The initial tally puts Bohannan fewer than 1,000 votes — less than a percentage point — behind Miller-Meeks.
The contest is a much tighter rematch of 2022, when Miller-Meeks won by 7 percentage points. Miller-Meeks earned a first term in Congress representing Iowa’s 2nd District when she defeated Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes in 2020.
FILE - The speaker's dais is seen in the House of Representatives of the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. In the 2024 elections, Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party's sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks at meeting of the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. In the 2024 elections, Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party's sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
