Venezuelan opposition candidate Gonzalez won't appear before court and questions election audit

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, left, and opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez address supporters during a protest against the official presidential election results in Caracas, Venezuela, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, two days after the vote. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

CARACAS, Venezuela -

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez will not appear before the country's high court Wednesday for a hearing related to an election audit requested by President Nicolas Maduro, his campaign said.

Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice on Monday ordered Gonzalez, the candidate of the opposition coalition, Maduro and the other eight candidates in the July 28 presidential election to attend hearings scheduled through Friday.

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 per cent of the 30,000 electronic voting machines nationwide showing he lost.

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Gonzalez 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 Gonzalez could face legal consequences over his decision to not appear for the scheduled hearing.

Judge Caryslia Rodriguez, 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.

Maduro is last on the list of hearings Rodriguez announced.

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