Caracas, Aug 25
Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has been summoned to testify in court regarding his alleged involvement in crimes related to the presidential elections, the prosecutors said.
The Venezuelan Attorney General's Office ordered Gonzalez, a member of the Unitary Platform coalition, to appear in court for questioning on Monday as part of a criminal investigation following the presidential elections held on July 28, The Venezuelan Public Ministry said via Instagram on Saturday.
Gonzalez was held in contempt for failing to follow the orders of the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice during an electoral dispute filed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the candidate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Xinhua news agency reported.
Maduro received 5,150,092 valid votes in the elections, representing 51.2 per cent of the votes, according to Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE).
Gonzalez received 4,445,978 votes, or 44.2 per cent of the total votes, according to the CNE.
Earlier, Maduro submitted an appeal to the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice to audit and certify the results of the presidential elections amid calls for greater transparency.
Maduro asked the highest court to summon the pertinent institutions "to compare all the elements of evidence and certify, by carrying out an expert opinion of the highest technical level, the electoral results of July 28."
In response, Venezuela's Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) validated the results of the presidential elections, which declared that Nicolas Maduro was re-elected as president of Venezuela.
The National Electoral Council announced that the Electoral Chamber of the court validated the results of the presidential election, stating that the ruling was "verified in an unrestricted and unequivocal manner" by national and international electoral experts who participated in the auditing process.