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The Venezuelan Movement for the Recall, against President Nicolás Maduro, denounced as “buffoonery” the recent change in the rules of the National Electoral Council that makes it difficult to collect the necessary signatures to consult citizens, through a referendum, if they want the president to leave office. . The opposition asks the Supreme Court of the country to review the modifications and warns that it will use all means to achieve the popular consultation.
Thanks to the strong control over the country’s organizations, Chavismo imposes, once again, its political maneuvers to cling to power.
Despite years of acute crisis and the clamor of millions of Venezuelans for the government of Nicolás Maduro to allow the passage to a new government, the last legal resource promoted by the opposition to achieve it, a recall referendum, is “sabotaged”.
The National Electoral Commission, whose five-member board includes three people related to the ruling party, ordered that the 4.2 million signatures necessary to support the popular consultation must be collected only during 12 hours, on January 26, and in only 1,200 locations.
In other words, the supporters of Maduro’s departure from the Executive have the difficult task of obtaining five signatures per minute and collecting the totality required in less than a day to activate the recall process.
“Maduro is terrified by the determined citizen response”
Given the new regulations announced on January 21, two opposition figures: Nicmer Evans and César Pérez Vivas, asked the country’s Supreme Court this weekend to review the provisions.
“It’s a great buffoonery. If they (the Government) stop signing against (the decree issued by former US President Barack Obama, they installed 14,000 centers nationally and internationally, how can it be that they have installed 1,200 centers ( to activate the recall) that nobody knows?” Evans questioned in a virtual press conference.
Although the opponents recognized the dominance of the ruling party over the control organisms in Venezuela, they indicated that they will use all possible legal means to obtain the referendum.
“Maduro is terrified by the determined citizen response to our initiative and has ordered his rectors to stop the development of the Referendum in its tracks,” assured the group, the Venezuelan Movement for the Recall (MOVER), in charge of promoting the appeal.
Venezuela’s constitution allows officials who have completed at least half of their term to be removed from office by vote. Maduro completed the first three years of his second term in office earlier this month.
Surveys indicate that seven out of 10 Venezuelans would support a change of government, at a time when it seems impossible to stop the economic and social collapse of the country.
With Reuters and EFE
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