Election officials on Wednesday quashed the opposition’s hope of holding a recall referendum that could wrest Venezuela’s presidency from the ruling socialist party.
Officials said a national vote on removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro could take place if the opposition gathers enough signatures over the course of three days at the end of next month, but add that a referendum would be held in the first quarter of next year.
That timing is crucial. A successful vote to oust Maduro this year would trigger a presidential election and give the opposition a shot at winning power. If Maduro were to be voted out next year, though, his vice president would finish the presidential term, leaving the socialists in charge.
With Venezuela’s economy in crisis, with soaring inflation and widespread shortages, polls say a majority of Venezuelans want Maduro gone.
Critics of Venezuela’s 17-year left-wing administration have made the recall their central political issue. The opposition staged its largest street demonstration in years Sept. 1 with a rally in Caracas demanding a referendum against Maduro be held this year.
The spokesman for the opposition coalition, Jesus Torrealba, said at a news conference on Wednesday night that the opposition would continue to demand a recall vote this year.
“The government is scared to face the people in elections, in the street, in any civic arena,” he said.
Socialist party leaders have been saying all along that any recall vote would not take place this year.
Other conditions laid out by elections officials on Wednesday were also unfavorable to the opposition.
Maduro’s opponents will be allowed to gather voter signatures from Oct. 26 to 28, with 20 percent of Venezuela’s registered voters needed to call a referendum. The opposition previously gathered signatures from 1 percent of the electorate, which allowed them to go to the second phase of signature collection.
However, in a blow to the recall effort, officials said that for the campaign to succeed it must get signatures from 20 percent of the electorate in each of Venezuela’s 23 states. Opposition leaders say they should only have to gather signatures from 20 percent of the voter roll nationwide, since some states are very remote and sparsely populated, and it is the popular vote that determines who wins the presidency.
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