Venezuela’s electoral authority has announced that that a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro will not be held this year in a blow to the opposition. Under the constitution, the recall referendum must take place within four years of the sitting presidents term to ensure a full election, which comes to an end in January. “Twenty percent was not required per entity or state in 2004”, Rondon said, referring to the opposition’s unsuccessful attempt to recall the late Hugo Chavez, “I don’t understand how the legal considerations were developed”. If the referendum is held before January 10 it would trigger new elections.
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Early in September hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters flooded the streets of Venezuela’s capital to protest against the embattled Maduro, demanding his ouster.
The right-wing group Democratic Unity will need to collect signatures from 20 percent of the electorate, almost 4 million signatures, to proceed with the referendum.
Ricardo Molina, Venezuela’s transport minister, had refused to meet union leaders, blaming schedule conflicts, Ocando said before threatening that the drivers would escalate to a nationwide strike if the ministry did not give them “answers”.
They also accuse them of fraud in an initial signature collection drive of 1 percent of voters.
Opponents have collected nearly 2 million signatures for a petition, the first step to launch a recall referendum to oust the government.
However, the state by state count is not the only move to anger the opposition. In the decade between 2002 and 2012, the number of voting stations in national elections soared from around 8,000 to 14,000. The opposition had asked for 20,000 of the 40,000 scanners the CNE has available.
MUD leader Jesus Torrealba however remained defiant, insisting that a vote in 2016 remained the goal.
“The government is scared to face the people in elections, in the street, in any civic arena”, he said.
Seeking leverage, the opposition has organized a series of protests.
Earlier this year the CNE said preparations for the referendum had been slowed by widespread irregularities in a preliminary petition.
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Speaking to private broadcaster Venevision, he said the MUD was trying to blame the CNE for its own failings.
