What's wrong with a recall referendum for ALL elected officials prior to the Presidential one?

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Historian and political analyst, Jorge Olavarria continues his crusade to get the opposition united and behind the recall referendum. This time he attacks Coordinadora Democratica (CD) leader and Miranda State Governor Enrique Mendoza for "short-sighted strategy." 

Olavarria says he doesn't understand why the opposition has not responded more quickly to the government's counter-proposal regarding the recall referendum.  The government's answer, he says,  is reasonable and constitutional and there is no reason why the opposition should NOT sign it, as it stands. "There can be no argument justifying Mendoza's stubbornness." 

Examining the government's counter-proposal, Olavarria suggests a hidden agenda on the part of some opposition leaders. The government's answer to clause 12 of the agreement, Olavarria notes,  is to widen the recall referendum to all elected officials once they reach half-term in office. 

A stickler for legal detail, Olavarria sees Mendoza's posturing and threat to abandon negotiations as childish...

The opposition, he insists,  sees a double threat in the government's proposal:

• The government is requesting recall referendums for all opposition State Governors, including Mendoza and Metropolitan Mayor Alfredo Pena before Chavez Frias recall referendum comes up

• There is a precedence to hold all the referendums requested or to be requested, which will be regulated according to the date they were requested. 

Olavarria welcomes the idea of a recall referendum for all elected officials, since some opposition State Governors are far from saints and he  asks what is the problem, if they take place before the presidential recall referendum. "If Mendoza and Alfredo Pena have to go through the referendum process it could be a testing ground for their Presidential aspirations ... the recall referendum cannot be revoked but it can be lost and the way Mendoza and others are acting, they will lose."