Venezuela suspends recall campaign against President Maduro

Venezuela's electoral authority suspended a recall campaign against President Nicolas Maduro citing alleged fraud in a signature-gathering drive, thwarting the opposition's bid 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 yesterday on Twitter.

The official 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 and validate some 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. During that stage the opposition had collected signatures from 1 per cent of electorate.

But in standing by those low-court 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 government-stacked 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 that the next stage of the complex process would have drawn onto the streets millions of Venezuelans who polls show overwhelmingly favor firing Maduro, who they blame for triple-digit inflation and long food lines.

The ruling comes on the heels of another decision by the electoral council this week to suspend by about six months gubernatorial elections that were slated for year-end which the opposition was heavily favored to win.