VENEZUELA: MORE THAN 3 MILLION SIGNATURES HAVE BEEN COLLECTED IN ELECTORIAL PETITION FOR REFERENDUM TO OUST PRESIDENT CHAVEZ

Record ID: 588601

  • Title: VENEZUELA: MORE THAN 3 MILLION SIGNATURES HAVE BEEN COLLECTED IN ELECTORIAL PETITION FOR REFERENDUM TO OUST PRESIDENT CHAVEZ
  • Date: 19th December 2003
  • Summary: (EU) CARACAS, VENEZUELA (DECEMBER 19, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS GUARDING NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL BUILDING (3 SHOTS) 0.16 2. SLV CONVOY OF SECURITY ON MOTOR CYCLES 0.21 3. VARIOUS OF OPPOSITION LEADERS CARRYING BOXES WITH SIGNATURES IN FAVOUR OF A REFERENDUM ON PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ 0.30 4. SCU MEDIA 0.34 5. SMV OPPOSITION LEADERS WITH BOXES 0.39 6. SLV OPPOSITION LEADERS CARRYING BOXES INTO BUILDING PAST SECURITY 0.45 7. VARIOUS OF OPPOSITION MEMBERS CELEBRATING AND SINGING 'THE ADMINISTRATION IS GOING TO FALL' (2 SHOTS) 1.01 8. SLV SOLDIERS GUARDING PLACE IN WHICH SIGNATURES ARE LOCATED 1.06 9. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITION DEMOCRATIC COORDINATOR ANTONIO LEDEZMA, SAYING: "I keep insisting, it's what the government is looking for, that is to rarefy the environment to try to negotiate with the opposition so that there isn't a referendum over the deputies nor for the president and that an alternative exit be planned that would be a revision or a general election moved forward. None of those things are in the Democratic Coordinator's agenda. Our path continues to be a mission to revoke the president and that is a road of no return." 1.31 10. WIDE OF NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL AT MEDIA CONFERENCE 1.37 11. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL WILLIAM PACHECO, SAYING: "Document in which we verify the delivery of 250 original boxes and 80 copies, document in which we authorize the guarding of boxes to the representatives who are present here today-- they are under their representation of the care, conservation and vigilance. Any other activity must be requested to the National Electoral Council." 2.00 12. VARIOUS OF MEMBERS OF THE DEMOCRATIC COORDINATOR SHOWING THE ACT THAT CERTIFIES THAT THE SIGNATURES WERE HANDED IN TO THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL COUNCIL 2.09 13. VARIOUS OF BOXES WITH SIGNATURES TO REVOKE CHAVEZ (2 SHOTS) 2.25 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Reuters ID: LVA914THCBDRO8IWZWDXQ9VJ2O8N
  • Story Text: More than 3 million signatures collected to oust
    Chavez.




    Protected by soldiers, opponents of Venezuelan
    President Hugo Chavez on Friday (December 19) handed over
    more than 3 million signatures they hope will lead to a
    referendum to oust the leftist leader.

    The formal handover to electoral authorities triggered
    a countdown toward a possible constitutional referendum in
    May on whether the populist president should stay in
    office.

    Around 2,000 troops backed by armoured vehicles sealed
    off the National Electoral Council in downtown Caracas as
    jubilant opposition leaders handed over 250 boxes
    containing the signatures requesting a referendum. They
    were collected in a nationwide signature drive three weeks
    ago.

    Chavez, a former paratrooper who has led the world's
    No. 5 oil exporter for five years, has loudly denounced the
    opposition referendum bid as a "mega-fraud." Opposition
    leaders, buoyed by opinion polls showing he would lose the
    poll, fear he may try to stop a vote from taking place.

    After a Christmas break lasting to January 5, the
    National Electoral Council will have a month to check the
    signatures to see whether they amount to the minimum 2.4
    million required to trigger a referendum.

    "Today we're the messengers of millions of Venezuelans
    ... what we have brought here is a river of ink expressed
    in signatures which have to be converted into votes," said
    Julio Borges of the opposition Democratic Coordinator
    coalition.

    Opposition leaders said they were delivering 3,467,050
    "bulletproof" signatures that they hope will pass the
    electoral council's stringent verification rules. An
    earlier referendum petition in September was rejected as
    flawed.

    Chavez foes see the poll as their best chance of
    ousting the president, whom they accuse of dragging the
    nation toward Cuba-style communism and economic ruin.

    Chavez says his free-spending health and education programs
    are aimed at helping Venezuela's poor.

    In a noisy anti-referendum campaign, the president and
    his supporters have insisted the opposition signatures
    collected Nov. 28-Dec. 1 are riddled with forgeries,
    including the names of dead people, foreigners and minors
    under voting age.

    "Let them deliver their signatures ... they don't have
    enough," said Chavez supporter Jose Humberto Ovalles as he
    sullenly watched the delivery of the opposition signatures.

    The government says the opposition only collected 1.9
    million signatures, short of the legal minimum.

    Armoured vehicles mounted with machine guns blocked off
    access streets and hundreds of National Guard troops and
    military police in full combat gear ringed the National
    Electoral Council to prevent attacks.

    But the handover went ahead peacefully in a strongly
    pro-Chavez area of Caracas which has in the past witnessed
    violent battles between followers and foes of the
    president.

    Ordinary Venezuelans are hoping to spend a quiet
    Christmas this year, free of the bitter political fighting
    that rocked the country last year, when Chavez survived a
    brief coup followed by a gruelling general strike in
    December and January.





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