No date yet set for revocatory referendum on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias' rule
<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, May 30, 2003 By: David Coleman
No date has yet been set for a revocatory referendum on the rule of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, but government and opposition negotiators have signed an agreement which obliges both sides to put aside a political conflict and to abide strictly by the terms of the 1999 Constitution to hold the referendum in a process which may be initiated after reaching the half-way point in the President's 6-year mandate this coming August 19.
Under the Constitution, which was itself approved by a democratic majority on December 15, 1999, a recall referendum can be held if Presidential opponents are able to collect signatures from at least 20% of duly registered voters.
Chavez Frias was first elected in December 1998, but opposition diehards -- who staged a violent but abortive coup d'etat on April 11, 2002 -- claim he may try to avoid a referendum. Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) deputy Felipe Mujica says "this a President who permanently fails to keep his word."
Nevertheless, Organization of American States (OAS) secretary general Cesar Gaviria was at the signing ceremony Thursday with Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel and opposition representatives. He said "this is a good agreement for all Venezuelans."
President Hugo Chavez Frias
Rabid opponents to President Chavez Frias' reform government accuse him of assuming near-dictatorial powers after he gaining majority support in the National Assembly (AN), quote a few nutters even go so far as to claim Chavez Frias is attempting to install Cuba-style communism in Venezuela despite abject denials from all quarters in government.
While opposition warlords maintain their vicious grip over much of what is going on in the provinces, the Venezuelan opposition is now pledged with the government to avoid violence in the run-up to the Constitutionally-mandated referendum process which is seen most likely to get off the ground in November or early December.
- But first the National Electoral College (CNE) must designate its own board of directors, verify valid signatures in a traditionally out-of-date roll of registered voters and set a target date for the referendum to be held.
Meanwhile, a series of hurdles must be surmounted even though they are not of the President's making ... voter records are said to include listings corruptly included of deceased voters from several decades back and political parties have yet to appoint representatives to monitor the vote when, and if, it happens...