Venezuela’s opposition has collected enough signatures to threaten embattled President Nicolás Maduro with the prospect of a recall election that could see him lose power for presiding over a national economic crisis.
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“We still don’t know if we will be seeing a referendum”.
“But this is a big step forward by an opposition alliance which has basically been opposing not just President Maduro but his predecessor Hugo Chavez”. If approved, opposition leaders would then have to collect almost four million signatures, representing 20% of the electorate, over a three-day period chosen by electoral officials and submit the petition for approval again.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks to oil workers during a demonstration outside Miraflores Presidential Palace after he met with USA diplomat Thomas Shannon in Caracas, Venezuela, June 22, 2016.
If a referendum were held this year and Maduro loses, that would trigger a new presidential election to end 17 years of Socialist rule.
After that date, a successful recall vote would simply transfer power to Maduro’s hand-picked vice-president.
A recent poll suggested 64 percent of Venezuelans would vote to remove Maduro.
The opposition has said the only way to put food on the shelves is to sack Mr. Maduro and scrap state controls of a battered economy, which the International Monetary Fund says will contract by 10% this year.
Instead of giving them an answer Tuesday, the electoral authorities testily said they “will not accept pressure” and scheduled a meeting for Monday to consider their auditors’ report on the opposition’s petition.
Adding to the heated political climate, Venezuela’s supreme court ruled on Monday night that the opposition-controlled National Assembly’s activities would be “null” until it withdrew three opposition legislators whom the tribunal had suspended pending a probe into alleged vote-buying. Last week, the government also issued a decree that opposition leaders say may force companies to loan workers for two months for agricultural work, a move that Amnesty International said would amount to forced labor.
– March 8: The opposition launches two initiatives in a bid to drive Maduro from office: a recall referendum, and a Constitutional reform to reduce his term from six to four years, which is later dismissed by the Supreme Court. Only then would an actual recall vote take place.
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His allies have an arsenal of possible delaying strategies.
