Venezuela's CNE to announce results as of February 20 -or so
From El Universal
Director of Venezuela's National Electoral Council [CNE] Oscar Battaglini said that half of the signature forms submitted by the pro-government against opposition lawmakers and 25 percent of those collected by the opposition against the President are now under a deeper scrutiny because of flaws found in them.
The CNE will start announcing partial results of the signature verification process for the recall petitions against a group of opposition legislators next week, said CNE director Jorge Rodríguez.
Rodríguez said that the directors' board of the top electoral body is working hard to be able to stick to the schedule established for the process.
He added that returning the objected signatures to the initial stages of verification would excessively delay the announcement on whether or not the recall votes will take place.
Once the results are announced, the citizens will have a period of five days to file reports in case their signatures have been included or excluded without their consent.
However, minutes later, director Oscar Battaglini told the state news agency Venpres that the CNE will make an definitive decision on the recall votes after February 20. "We initially said February 13, but what is sure is that (...) from February 20 on, we will be approaching rapidly to a final decision," he said.
Battaglini also commented that the physical verification of all the signature collection forms has come to an end and the Superior Technical Committee is now working on them in the quality control area.
Translated by Edgardo Malaver
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