"The Chamber has recognized ... the request for preventive constitutional protection as appropriate, and thus all the effects of the various phases of the electoral process, which was organized by the National Commission of Primaries, are thereby suspended," the ruling read.
The court notified Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab about the suspected violation of the country's constitution as well as ordinary electoral crimes.
Over 2.4 million Venezuelan citizens all over the world are said to have voted in the opposition primaries on October 22, organized by the opposition-run National Commission of Primaries. Based on the results of counting 91% of the ballots, Machado was declared the winner with 92.35% of the votes.
The state prosecutors who opened an investigation into possible violations during the voting, including personal data theft, money laundering and criminal conspiracy, claim there is no documentary evidence for the figures announced following the primaries as the opposition refused to cooperate with the National Election Commission and rejected the use of an automated vote counting system in favor of manual counting, which allows for repeated use of the data of the same voter, as well as the data of those who did not vote.
In 2015, Machado was barred from politics until 2030 in a corruption case.