(Caracas) The Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) declared on Thursday “inadmissible” the request for a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro filed by Venezuelan opponents, who had already announced that they would abandon their initiative due to the conditions imposed by the authority. electoral.
Posted at 5:26 p.m.
“The CNE declares inadmissible the request for a recall referendum on the mandate of the president” and “declares inadmissible a new request for a referendum”, declared Tania D’Amelio, one of the five rectors of the electoral authority.
“42,421 expressions of will were received”, or “1.01% of the electoral register”, specified the representative of the electoral authority, considered by the opposition as subservient to power.
The initiative for a recall referendum had been launched by a small fraction of the opposition, without the support of the major parties. To complete the process, the signatures of 20% of the voter lists in each state (some 4.2 million in total) had to be collected.
However, the conditions set by the CNE, namely a 12-hour deadline to collect these signatures, made the process “impossible”, denounced the Venezuelan Movement for the Revocation (Mover), promoter of the referendum, which had called on Friday the Venezuelans not to participate.
Mover announced that he would seek a nullity of the process before the Supreme Court.
The Venezuelan opposition has already tried unsuccessfully in 2016 to demand a recall referendum against the first term of Nicolas Maduro (2013-2018).
The latter was re-elected in 2018 in a ballot described as “fraud” by his opponents and rejected by the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries. The opponent Juan Guaidó had declared himself interim president of the country, but he failed to oust Mr. Maduro from power.
The next presidential elections are scheduled for 2024.