Caracas, Aug 8 (IANS/EFE) Venezuela's Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the results of the April presidential election, ruling that a challenge by opposition leader Henrique Capriles and similar lawsuits were "inadmissible".
Supreme Court Chief Justice Gladys Gutierrez said the opposition did not present sufficient evidence to prove the alleged irregularities about which it had complained.
The high court thus denied the opposition's request to redo the April 14 election, in which the president, Nicolas Maduro, political heir to the late Hugo Chavez, was declared the winner over Capriles by a margin of a little more than 200,000 votes.
Capriles had filed the challenge May 2.
"The basis of this important appeal is that in democracy one should vote, but when one votes one should vote freely according to conscience, should vote without coercion, without violence and above all should vote respecting the procedures and the rule of law," said attorney Gerardo Fernandez, Capriles' representative, at the time.
The ruling was handed down a day after Capriles criticized the court's delay in issuing its decision on the matter and announced that he will take the case before international tribunals.
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--IANS/EFE
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