Chavez referendum update

A brief follow-up to my last post on efforts to recall Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The New York Times reports that a referendum date has been set in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez: A recall referendum on President Hugo Chávez, whose rule has bitterly divided Venezuelans, has been scheduled for Aug. 15, electoral authorities said Tuesday ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

A brief follow-up to my last post on efforts to recall Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The New York Times reports that a referendum date has been set in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez:

A brief follow-up to my last post on efforts to recall Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The New York Times reports that a referendum date has been set in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez:

A recall referendum on President Hugo Chávez, whose rule has bitterly divided Venezuelans, has been scheduled for Aug. 15, electoral authorities said Tuesday night. The president’s opponents learned Thursday that they had collected enough signatures to force a referendum but had worried that with administrative or legal challenges, he could push the vote past Aug. 19, the fifth anniversary of his coming to power. According to the Constitution, a vote to recall Mr. Chávez at that point would allow his vice president to run the country and permit Mr. Chávez to run for re-election in 2006. In a brief statement, Ezequiel Zamora, vice president of the five-member National Electoral Council, said the Aug. 15 date would permit Venezuelans to remove Mr. Chávez’s administration and, within 30 days, elect a new president.

So, hurdle one — canceling the referendum via a technicality or legal delay — has been cleared. However, the BBC reports that Chavez will not be taking this challenge lying down: “He has already begun campaigning, warning voters of the consequences of an opposition victory.”

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

Tag: Theory

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