The Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela begins hearings today in Caracas with the former candidates and political parties that participated in the presidential elections, to settle the dispute filed by Nicolás Maduro.

On Wednesday, three of the former presidential candidates and the leaders of the 38 political organisations and movements that took part in the 28 July elections are due to appear before Venezuela’s highest judicial body at 09:00 local time.

The 10 candidates must hand over «all electoral instruments in the possession of the political parties and candidates,» said the president of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez, on Monday.

She cited them in «intuitu personae», that is, they cannot be substituted or delegate someone else, and warned that «failure to appear will entail the consequences foreseen in our current legal system».

The leaders of the parties and movements that made up the opposition coalition Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD), Manuel Rosales, of Un Nuevo Tiempo; José Luis Cartaya, Mesa de la Unidad Democrática; and José Simón Calzadilla, Movimiento por Venezuela, were summoned first thing in the morning.

Two hours later, former PUD candidate Edmundo González, who was absent from an earlier event called by the Supreme Court, is due to attend.

This will be followed by the representatives who supported the former candidate of the Movimiento Primero Venezuela, José Brito; Luis Parra, for the Primero Venezuela party; Conrado Pérez, Movimiento Primero Justicia; Omar Ávila, for Unión Visión Venezuela; and Chaín Bucarán, for Venezuela Unido.

Wednesday’s session will be closed in the afternoon by José Bernabé Guatiérrez, for Acción Democrática; Miguel Salazar, for Copei; Mario Valdés, for Movimiento Republicano; Pedro Veliz, for Bandera Rojas; José Contreras, for Derecha Democrática Popular; and Carlos Melo, for Unión Nacional Electoral.

They supported former candidate Luis Eduardo Martínez, of the opposition Acción Democrática party.

The process began once the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, submitted the documents and annexes requested by the Electoral Chamber of the country’s highest judicial body on Monday.

In this procedure, he stated that «all the documents requested by the CNE had been received, in compliance with the court order,» said Rodríguez.

The process will have a 15-day extension period, for which the TSJ will make use of «all the mechanisms available in the legal system for this purpose».