MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Recall referendum in Venezuela August 15.

The recall referendum to cut Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez constitutional mandate will take place next August 15, announced this Tuesday evening in Caracas Ezequiel Zamora, vice-president of the National Electoral Council, CNE.

Mr. Zamora said that during a brief CNE session Tuesday afternoon "August 15 was agreed" as the date for the recall referendum.

Venezuelan opposition was demanding the referendum before August 19, so if President Chavez is defeated, presidential elections would have to be called in thirty days time as indicated by the Venezuelan constitution.

To move Mr. Chavez out of office, who was elected by a landslide in 1998, at least 3,8 million voters must approve the recall referendum provided at least 25% of the electoral roll participates.

If the referendum had been scheduled for after August 19, and Mr. Chavez was defeated his mandate would have to be completed by the vice-president, --who is directly named by the elected president--, that is until January 2007.

President Chavez who the opposition claim wants to become a dictator concentrating all power, has said he accepts the challenge of the referendum because he will be victorious over his adversaries whom he describes as "oligarchs" and "coup d'état" instigators.

The opposition alliance under the banner of Democratic Coordinator, CD, which has been battling for months collecting signatures for the recall referendum preferred August 8, but Deputy Alejandro Armas one of the group's spoke-persons said in a television program that the CNE decision will be accepted.