Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Chavez Ready to Face Venezuela Recall Vote
VOA News
04 Jun 2004, 13:49 UTC



AP

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he is ready to face a recall referendum.
In a nationwide

In a nationwide television address Thursday, Mr. Chavez said he accepts the referendum challenge and vowed to defeat his opponents. He spoke after Venezuela's election officials said the opposition had collected enough voter signatures to trigger the vote.

Senior official of the National Electoral Council, Jorge Rodriguez says that, based on a preliminary count, Chavez opponents had collected more than the 2.4 million signatures required for a recall ballot.

The announcement came after recall supporters turned out at voter stations to reconfirm their signatures on the petitions.

Earlier, recall supporters insisted they had collected nearly 3.5 million signatures during their petition drive, but the Chavez government said it was able to verify fewer than two million signatures.

In the past President Chavez has accused his opponents of using fraud to collect the signatures, saying that some opposition voters may have used false identities and that the names of dead people appeared on the voter rolls.

The Organization of American States and Atlanta-based Carter Center monitored the petition effort.

Venezuela's election officials have said a referendum may take place August 8.

Mr. Chavez opponents accuse him of ruining Venezuela's economy and trying to model the oil-rich country after communist Cuba. The president insists he is working to improve the lives of the country's impoverished majority.

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