The Daily Journal.- The process to select new justices for Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) will start over under a mechanism that will expand civil society participation, according to Ramón López, a representative of the 2015 National Assembly delegation at the dialogue talks.
In an interview with Caraota Digital, López said authorities will select the 32 justices of the country’s highest court through “a rigorous mechanism” and explained that they scrapped the process launched by the 2025 National Assembly.
“The process initiated by the 2025 National Assembly was reset to zero. A new nominations committee will be formed, expanded to 23 members to include more representatives from civil society,” he said.
López explained that the new committee will have a different composition from the previous one, in which lawmakers from the 2025 National Assembly held the majority. According to the lawmaker, civil society will now hold a majority and will work alongside legislators to evaluate the candidates.
“Civil society will now hold the majority and, together with them, will review the credentials of all applicants,” he said.
He added that the goal is to increase confidence in the process and ensure that the candidates meet the professional requirements to serve as TSJ justices.
“This seeks to build confidence in the country and allow the best professionals to apply to become justices,” he said.
The lawmaker also said the committee will review the criteria it uses to evaluate applicants. “They will review the scoring system to apply rigorous standards when preselecting potential justices,” he said, without specifying what changes the committee will make.
Special Commission to Review Candidates
As an additional evaluation mechanism, López announced the creation of a special commission comprising seven legal professionals.
The lawmaker described the body as a “safety valve” and said its members must meet qualifications similar to those required of candidates seeking a seat on the court.
“As a safety valve, they created a high-level commission of seven legal professionals who must meet the same qualifications required of a justice,” he explained.
The commission will review the credentials of candidates who advance through the nominations committee’s preselection process.
“This will allow them to check the credentials of the candidates put forward by the nominations committee,” López said.
The lawmaker provided no additional details about the timetable for installing the new committee or the expected date for completing the process.
On August 12, a delegation from the 2015 National Assembly, led by Dinorah Figuera, signed an agreement with Delcy Rodríguez’s administration to launch a new process to transform the justice system. The agreement calls for reforms to the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), the renewal of the Judicial Nominations Committee, and a new call for candidates to fill all seats on the country’s highest court.
The parties decided on the first round of talks promoted by the U.S. Department of State. During this initial stage, the delegations held five technical working sessions and five plenary meetings. They focused on two areas: responding to the emergency caused by the two earthquakes on June 24 and strengthening democracy, the judiciary, and the electoral system.
