Court overturns recall ruling

2004-03-24 12:01

Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuela's Supreme Court again examined an opposition petition for a recall vote on President Hugo Chavez, with one chamber on Tuesday overturning a ruling by another chamber that had favoured a recall.

Chief Justice Ivan Rincon said the court's constitutional chamber struck down a ruling by the electoral chamber, which had ordered election authorities to accept as valid 870 000 signatures demanding the vote.

In a widely expected decision, Rincon said the electoral chamber was not authorised to rule on matters regarding the petition for the presidential recall.

However, electoral chamber magistrates insisted last week that they had the authority to decide on the matter, making it unclear how the court's internal conflict would be resolved.

Chavez opponents can appeal Tuesday's ruling to all 20 of the court's magistrates, but it was not immediately clear if they would do so.

Venezuela's opposition claims to have presented more than three million signatures in December demanding the recall. Opponents need at least 2.4 million valid signatures to trigger the vote.

Rincon said the National Electoral Council, which decided that 870 000 of the signatures cannot be deemed valid unless citizens come forward to confirm them, is independent and free to decide on the verification rules.

"The National Electoral Council... is an autonomous and independent branch of government," said Rincon, adding that the electoral chamber was unfit to overturn decisions made by the elections council.

Last chance

The vote would be the last chance for Venezuela's opposition to oust Chavez at the ballot box before the next schedule presidential election in 2006.

The members of the Supreme Court's electoral chamber are widely considered friendly to the opposition, while a majority of the constitutional chamber's magistrates are thought to be pro-government.

Chavez, a leftist firebrand who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, insists the elections council has reason to suspect the petition is fraud ridden. He claims many signatures were duplicated or forged.

The Organisation of American States and the US-based Carter Centre, which are observing the recall process, say they have seen no evidence of widespread fraud.

The two groups have led efforts to bring Venezuela's political crisis to a peaceful resolution after a failed 2002 coup and a crippling strike last year that parlayed oil production in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Opposition leaders accuse Chavez of becoming increasingly authoritarian and dividing this South American nation along class lines.

Supporters counter that Chavez is the first president in decades to take the plight of the country's poor majority into account and has worked hard to improve living conditions for them.

- AP