Next Stage of Venezuelan Recall Referendum to Begin 24 October

Puebla, August 30th 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The next stage in the Venezuelan rightwing’s bid for a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro will be held from 24 to 30 October this year, a National Electoral Council (CNE) director announced.

Socorro Hernandez announced on Monday that this stage involves collecting the necessary 20% of signatures from registered voters, in order for the recall vote to go ahead. This means the rightwing will need to collect 3.9 million signatures, which will then have to be verified.

This Thursday, rightwing supporters are planning a large march, in which one of the key demands is the confirmation of a schedule for the referendum.

Hernandez explained that during this last week of October the CNE would provide computers to facilitate the signature collection – one per 1,000 voters, of the 3.9 million required.

The rightwing coalition, the MUD, currently in power in Venezuela’s parliament, has demanded that the CNE speed up the referendum schedule, and that it make 14,500 centres and 40,000 computers available for the process. The latter figure is just a bit more than what the CNE since promised on Monday.

However Hernandez has also stated in the past that the 20% must be by state, while the MUD has demanded that it be based only on national figures.