News / Venezuela

Caracas asks top court to block recall referendum

Tuesday, 14 June 2016 5:05 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 14 June 2016 9:36 AM ]

Jorge Rodriguez, a Venezuelan government official, shows a copy of the form to activate the vote with invalidated signatures at the Supreme Court of Justice in Caracas, June 13, 2016. ©AFP

The Venezuelan government has started a legal action at a top court to block what it calls a fraudulent opposition bid to hold a referendum aimed at removing President Nicolas Maduro.

Jorge Rodriguez, the head of a commission to oversee the recall push, said on Monday that he has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of Justice, asking the tribunal to intervene.

“We have found a huge fraud against the Constitution,” he said, adding it would be “perpetrating a brutal fraud to authorize [the opposition] to proceed to the next stage.”

Venezuela’s right-wing opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), is racing to call a referendum by the end of the year.

To fulfill the requirements of the process, it has submitted a petition with 1.8 million signatures to the National Electoral Council (CNE). The electoral commission, however, announced on Friday that more than 600,000 signatures are invalid.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a rally in Caracas on June 11, 2016. © AFP

Rodriguez had said in late May that more than 40 percent of the signatures were fraudulent as 10,000 of them belonged to the dead people.

On Monday, he called on the opposition to “stop lying to the international community and stop lying to the Venezuelan people,” reiterating that it would not be possible to hold the referendum this year.

Maduro also ruled out the possibility of holding a referendum anytime sooner than 2017. He said, “If the recall referendum’s requirements are met, it will be next year, and that’s it.”

The president has so far successfully blocked previous bids against him in the National Assembly by appealing to the Supreme Court.

He denounced the opposition’s plans as a US-backed attempt to bring about a coup d’état in the oil-rich country that is home to some 31 million people.

Since 2014, Venezuela has been grappling with protests against Maduro who is under fire by his critics, most notably the opposition, amid shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity.

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