Venezuela halts recall bid against president

VENEZUELA: Venezuela’s electoral authority suspended a recall campaign against President Nicolas Maduro yesterday citing alleged fraud in a signaturegathering drive, thwarting the opposition’s bid to oust the socialist leader through the ballot box.

The opposition immediately blasted the decision as unconstitutional, and highlighted that it came just hours after Maduro left Venezuela on a multi-nation tour of the Middle East.

``We alert the diplomatic corps in our country that the government today is pushing toward a very dangerous scenario,’’ former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on Twitter.

The announcement came as a shock to many Venezuelans, who were gearing up for the chance to sign petitions next week seeking the embattled socialist’s removal. To trigger a stay-or-go referendum, the opposition needed to collect 4 million signatures from 20 per cent of the electorate in 24 states over three days next week.

The electoral council’s decision was in response to rulings earlier yesterday by courts in four Venezuelan states that found there was fraud in an earlier stage of the petition drive.

But in standing by those lowcourt rulings it appeared to be ignoring its own decision in August validating the signatures and allowing the process to move forward. It gave no indication if and when the process would be resumed.

``In adherence to the constitution, the National Electoral Council abides by the decisions ordered by the tribunals and has sent instructions to postpone the process of signature gathering until new judicial instructions are known,’’ it said in a statement.

Although the governmentstacked electoral board had already thrown a number of obstacles in the way of Maduro’s opponents, including delaying an eventual referendum until 2017, many had hoped the next stage of the complex process would have drawn onto the streets millions of Venezuelans who polls show overwhelmingly favour firing Maduro, who they blame for the country’s triple-digit inflation and long food lines. -AP