Officials nix effort to recall embattled Venezuelan president

margin. The ruling is particularly dramatic because it comes just days before critics of the socialist administration were to start gathering the one-fifth of voters’ signatures needed to place the issue on the ballot.

“This is a big deal and reveals that the government was fearful of what could happen in the three-day signature collection period. They have effectively postponed the recall referendum indefinitely. This measure makes it difficult to think of Venezuela as a democracy,” said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Officials cited alleged fraud in a preliminary effort to get 1 percent of voters’ signatures as justification for blocking the opposition from proceeding to the next stage of the referendum on Maduro’s removal. His critics blame the late President Hugo Chavez’s heir for Venezuela’s economic collapse, bare store shelves and the jailing of opposition leaders.

The suspension of the recall came as a shock to many Venezuelans, who were gearing up for the chance to sign petitions next week seeking the embattled leader’s removal.

Critics of Venezuela’s 17-year left- wing administration have made the recall their central political issue after being sidelined in Congress and in virtually all other public institutions this year. But the campaign had already become mostly symbolic after elections officials in September said no vote would take place this year.

That timing is crucial. A successful vote to oust Maduro this year would have triggered a presidential election and given the opposition a good shot at winning power. If Maduro is voted out in 2017, though, his vice president will finish the presidential term, leaving the socialists in charge.