Venezuela activates second phase for Maduro recall

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep.

Venezuela’s electoral council on Wednesday approved the second phase of a recall vote against President Nicolas Mauro, announcing a timetable to collect of signatures required to activate the process.

The Coalition of Democratic Unity (MUD) must collect 3.9 million signatures, or 20 percent of the electorate Oct. 26 - 28, the National Electoral Council (CEN) said.

“If the minimum quorum is reached, the call of the event would take place in early December” and a recall vote could be held in the first quarter of 2017, the CEN said in statement.

MUD leader Jesus Torrealba said he has no doubt Venezuelans will be mobilized to "the victory”, but the process would be difficult because the electoral council required the collection of 20 percent of signatures in every state and not a nationwide total.

The MUD will evaluate the decision throughout Wednesday, he said.

The 20 percent requirement was criticized by Luis Emilio Rondon, one of the five CNE rectors, and who is closely aligned to the opposition group.

“The Constitution is very clear that the election is national. It did not apply in (the recall referendum) in 2004, so I do not understand the legal arguments that led to this 20 percent,” Rondo said at a press conference.

The CEN has established 5,392 machines to capture fingerprints distributed in 1,356 centers in 335 municipalities, for which it has started to request additional credit and other financial operation processes to cover the costs associated with the schedule.

The MUD previously collected 1 percent of the signatures of nearly 200,000 voters in order to activate the referendum.

The South American nation is suffering an economic and political crisis marked by the lack of food and medicine that has fueled the recall demand.