Venezuelan president rebuffs poll

  • The Guardian,
The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, has refused to accept opposition signatures calling for a referendum on his leftist rule, even if the new national electoral council says they are legitimate.

"We have proof they committed fraud. They transcribed signatures from some of their banks or there are signatures of dead people," Mr Chavez said after meeting his ideological ally, Cuba's President Fidel Castro at a UN conference in Havana, casting doubt on a referendum to resolve a festering feud in the world's fifth largest oil exporting country. Mr Chavez said his government would appeal against a council decision validating more than 3 million signatures presented on August 20 by his opponents, who are seeking to oust him in a mid-term recall ballot.

Under Venezuela's constitution, drafted by his supporters after he gained office in 1998, a referendum can be called with the backing of 20% of the electorate, or 2.4 million signatures. The council faces the sensitive task of verifying the opposition signatures and setting a referendum date. Mr Chavez said if the council decided the signatures were legal, "it would lose credibility and would not be able to run any election, not even to elect Miss Venezuela".

Mr Chavez, who won presidential elections in 1998 and 2000 and was briefly toppled in a botched coup last year, dismisses his foes as rich "oligarchs" trying to overthrow him. They accuse him of ruling like a dictator and seeking to install Cuban-style communism in Venezuela.

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