(Caracas) The electoral authority of Venezuela has given 12 hours next Wednesday to the promoters of a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro to collect the more than 4.2 million signatures necessary for the organization of such a consultation.
Posted at 10:57 p.m.
The collection of signatures will be organized “on January 26, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., in 1,200 centers” across the country, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Twitter on Friday evening.
The opposition organizations, which on Monday launched the procedure for a recall referendum against the mandate of the socialist president (2019-2025), will have to collect a number of signatures equivalent to 20% of the voters registered in Caracas and in each of the 23 states of the country, i.e. a total of more than 4.2 million signatures out of 20.9 million voters.
If a single region does not reach the 20% mark, the entire procedure will be cancelled.
“What are you afraid of, Maduro? You don’t even allow a few signatures […] The dictatorship does not even take care of form,” opposition leader Juan Guaidó was indignant on Twitter.
“It is a joke to announce […] 1200 collection centers so that 20 million citizens can exercise their rights. It’s like putting 1000 liters of water in a 5 liter container,” criticized César Pérez Vivas, one of the promoters of the referendum against Maduro.
The Venezuelan opposition has already tried unsuccessfully in 2016 to demand a recall referendum against the first term of Nicolas Maduro (2013-2019). He 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.