Venezuela’s Electoral Commission Approves Seven Petitions for Recall Referenda

Caracas, June 20, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com).- Seven recall referenda will be convoked this coming October, announced Electoral Council president Tibisay Lucena, following the tally of petitions for such referenda. The referenda will affect six Mayors and one state legislator.

Venezuelans had the opportunity to express their support for recall referenda this past Saturday to Monday for 167 elected officials. The National Electoral Council (CNE) had set up 1,570 signature collection centers throughout the country, at the request of a variety of civil society groups that sought recall referenda for mayors, governors, and state legislators. None of the country’s main parties—opposition or pro-government—supported the effort.

For a petition to be successful, at least 20% of registered voters in the elected official’s district had to indicate their support for a recall referendum by having their fingerprint scanned. Fingerprint scanners were used this time because of the large number of suspected fraudulent signatures that were submitted the last time a recall referenda were sought, in December 2006, against President Chavez and members of the National Assembly.

Lucena announced that of the over 10 million registered voters that could have supported the petitions and that 186,008 did so over the weekend and Monday.

Opposition parties, such representatives from the former governing party Copei, argued that the low turn-out was due to fear of being blacklisted. “The recall referenda have become a farce,” said Copei leader Roberto Enriquez, adding that the low turn-out was due to “the fear of citizens of being included in a [black] list.”

Following the August 2004 recall referendum against President Chavez, the names of supporters of the petition for the referendum circulated in some government institutions, which were said to have used the names to screen applicants for jobs in the public administration. The CNE assured, though, that this time the lists would not fall into the hands of anyone outside the CNE.

Organizers of the petition drive, such as former foreign minister Luis Alfonso Davila, who sought a recall referendum against Tarek William Saab, the pro-Chavez governor of Anzoategui state, admitted that the effort was a failure. “Who won in this effort was apathy,” said Davila, “We placed the proposal in the hands of the population and it did not take it up.”

Marcos Hernandez, a pro-Chavez organizer of the petition against Felipe Acosta Carlez, the pro-Chavez governor of Carabobo state, stated that the reason his group failed to collect sufficient signatures was that it did not have enough resources to promote the event. Hernandez also blamed the CNE for having “failed to provide information” about the event.

CNE President Lucena, though, denied that it was the CNE’s responsibility to promote the petitions. The collection effort “is not an event convoked by the electoral body, but by the promoters of the petitions, who had an interest in requesting referenda,” said Lucena. This is why “the CNE had and has no need to publicize” the petition drive. “The constitutional role of the CNE was to act as an administrator and facilitator of the process,” she added.

Former vice-president José Vicente Rangel blamed the opposition for the low participation in the event, explaining that the lack of a responsible opposition does not create the right atmosphere for recall referenda. “There is no opposition, we are in a vacuum, in limbo,” complained Rangel.

All sides criticized that the lack of a law governing referenda made organizing this process particularly difficult. Currently referenda are governed by rules the CNE has set up, even though it should be the legislature that develops the process. Lucena said that the CNE will develop and propose its own referendum law, which it will present to the National Assembly soon. Part of the problem is that there are no procedures in place for who would replace a recalled mayor.

While Lucena did not want to announce an exact date for the six recall referenda that will be convoked, she said that October is the most likely time. For a recall referendum to be successful, at least as many voters have to vote in favor of a recall as originally voted for them. Also, turn-out must be at least 25%.