Venezuela's Recall Referendum Update
By Sol Maria Castro, veninvestor.com
Updates on Verification Process of Recall Referendum Petitions after 108 days. ARTICLE 31: The National Electoral Council will publish in at least, one printed national medium the results of the process of validation to which Numeral 3, Article 28 refers, indicating the numbers of the identity cards of the referendum petitioners. In a five continuous day period following the publication, the signatory who was rejected may go to the National Electoral Council personally, to repair any material error in which the Electoral Administration may have incurred during the verification of his data. Otherwise, the rejection will remain firm. Likewise, the elector who alleges he did not sign the form, may go to the National Electoral Council to requests his immediate exclusion from the total of signatures. In both cases, the National Electoral Council will publish the format of the communications through which the electors will make their requests.
From the Referendum Norms passed by the National Electoral Council on September 25, 2003.
§ The umbrella opposition group Democratic Coordinator presented the document that was submitted to the CNE in a press conference on Monday. The document, which summarizes the CD official position, lists the minimum conditions the repair procedure must have in order for the opposition to accept; these conditions include: installing centers near voting stations during the five day period as the Norms establish, with auditing prior to the event, and follow-up by observers, a simple manual procedure with daily totalizing, a number of signatures viable as a departure point with clear dates for both the repair process and the presidential recall referendum. This should be held the first days of August the latest, and never after the recall referendum of opposition legislators.
§ In a subsequent press conference, CNE director Jorge Rodríguez, accompanied by alternate director, Tibisay Lucena, announced the National Electoral Board will make a proposal to the CNE directorate postponing the regional elections to a later date (September 19) in case the RR were convoked after the repair to show the opposition their good will in the negotiation process. During the weekend, Rodríguez had presented the opposition with the complete chronogram.
§ Negotiations will continue though there is no agreement around the date of the eventual PRR, the mechanics of the repair or the total number of signatures.
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