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| President Maduro |
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's opponents advanced in
their mission to drive him from office when electoral authorities gave them
authorization to take initial steps seeking a recall referendum.
The National Electoral Board said on Tuesday it would hand
over the paperwork allowing them to seek nearly 200,000 signatures needed as a
first step towards calling a referendum. It is one of the legal means the
opposition is trying to use to oust Maduro, whom it blames for the country's
severe economic crisis. He has vowed to hold onto power and continue the
socialist "revolution" of the past 17 years.
The electoral board said in a statement it "will hand
over the form for launching presidential recall referendum proceedings" to
members of the opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). Under
electoral law the coalition first needs to gather signatures from one percent
of the electorate -- just under 200,000 -- to approve launching the process. If
it gets them, it can then launch formal proceedings to try to call the
referendum. To do that it needs to gather a further four million signatures.