MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela faces a new institutional dispute

Venezuela's Supreme Court this Monday voided a ruling by electoral authorities that hundreds of thousands of signatures supporting a recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez were “dubious” and must be confirmed by their authors

The ruling which favours the political opposition, but subject to appeal, is expected to open a new institutional confrontation between the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the National Electoral Council.

Responding to an appeal from the opposition, the Supreme Court rejected the National Electoral Council, CNE, decision to review the validity of 876,017 signatures which are essential to initiate the recall referendum against President Chavez.

Previously CNE had stated that the referendum was conditioned to the confirmation of the validity of 600,000 of those "dubious" signatures.

"The CNE is hereby ordered to add the 876,017 signatures to the 1,832,493 valid petitions presented to request the referendum, bringing the total to 2,708,510 signatures," ruled the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court.

Some 2.4 million signatures - representing 20% of registered voters - are required for a recall referendum on the presidential mandate.

However last Friday the Constitutional Chamber -which has the final say in any conflict of jurisdiction-, notified the Electoral Chamber that it lacked the authority to rule on the appeal filed by the opposition.

The Electoral Chamber's defiance of the Constitutional Chamber injunction has created an institutional crisis within the Supreme Court of unforeseeable consequences, according to Jesus Caldera, a constitutional attorney.

The Electoral Chamber overturned this Monday the regulations that CNE established last November before the start of the recall referendum process which needs the signed request of 20% of the electorate.

In the current scenario the opposition now does not need to prove the authenticity of the challenged signatures to initiate the referendum.

The Electoral Chamber determined that the controversial 870,017 signatures are valid in principle but also added that those citizens, who wished to annul their signatures, can do so in the next several days.

President Chavez's 5th Republic Movement replied this Monday that it will appeal the Electoral Chamber's decision validating hundreds of thousands of signatures which it claims are "forged, belonging to no one and making it impossible for the alleged signers to come forward to annul them".