Removal referendum in Venezuela in 2016
The recall referendum in Venezuela in 2016 is a plebiscite in Venezuela that is in preparation and is suspended indefinitely by the state electoral authority with the aim of removing President Nicolás Maduro . The necessary first step was taken at the beginning of May 2016 with the collection of 2.5 million signatures. The further course of events is uncertain, the implementation is considered unlikely.
Political background
Politics in Venezuela is highly polarized. Since the election of Hugo Chávez as president in 1999 and the electoral victories of his party, the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela , Venezuela has pursued a policy determined by socialist and Marxist ideas. Politics is described by the government as the Bolivarian Revolution and by supporters as 21st century socialism . The core of this policy was the nationalization of key industries and the use of Venezuela's oil wealth to implement the government's social policy and also to support its clientele.
In 2004, a recall referendum against Hugo Chávez failed . After the death of Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro was elected president in Venezuela's 2013 presidential election with a narrow result.
Despite the arrest of leading opposition politicians, the opposition won two-thirds of the seats in the parliamentary elections in Venezuela in 2015 . However, this election victory did not lead to any change in policy. Since the election, the government has governed with emergency ordinances that were approved by the old parliament. The laws of parliament (including a law on the release of political prisoners) were rejected by the president with the help of his veto right. In polls, two thirds of voters are in favor of voting out Maduro.
Economic background
The dominant political issue is the severe economic crisis in Venezuela. Economic output fell by ten percent in 2015 alone. For 2016, the further reduction is estimated at 10 to 15 percent. Venezuela recorded the highest inflation rate in the world at 275% in 2015; the IMF's forecast for 2016 is 720%. In addition to the consequences of socialist economic policy, the collapse of the oil price led to an economic shock. The supply situation for the population is catastrophic, the lack of toilet paper was an important issue in the 2015 parliamentary elections. Due to the chronic shortage of foreign exchange and foreign exchange management, the import of goods is greatly reduced. This also applies to many raw products. The only brewery in the country, Empresas Polar , ceased production because it no longer has the opportunity to import barley that is not grown in the country.
The economic situation was exacerbated by a lack of electricity. The Guri Dam supplies mathematically one-third of the required amount of electricity. However, due to the drought caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon , it hardly carries any water and electricity production had to be reduced. Since there was no investment in reserve power plants, this leads to production restrictions. The Maduro government therefore ordered two additional days off per week to save electricity.
The referendum
Venezuela has a presidential system of government that gives the president extensive rights. Accordingly, the president can only be recalled by the people and only with high hurdles. A dismissal with a new election is only permissible if the term of office of the President is at least 2 years. If the term of office is shorter, dismissal will result in the Vice-President becoming President without a new election. In order to get a new election, the opposition had to hold a successful referendum in 2016. The referendum itself takes place in three steps. First of all, 200,000 eligible voters (around 1% of the electorate) must declare with their signature that they want a recall referendum. After the referendum has been approved by the electoral commission, just under four million supporter signatures (around 20 percent of those eligible to vote) must be provided within three days. Once this hurdle has been overcome, the actual vote takes place. At least as many votes must be cast for the dismissal as the President received when he was elected.
On May 2, 2016, the head of the opposition alliance MUD, Jesús Torrealba , declared that 2.5 million signatures had been collected for the first step and given to the National Electoral Council (CNE).
The National Electoral Council appointed by Maduro declared that it would decide on June 2, 2016 whether to allow the referendum. The Vice-President of Venezuela, Aristóbulo Istúriz , anticipated the result and declared on May 17, 2016 that the referendum would be prevented. At the same time, President Maduro declared a state of emergency and granted the military extensive powers. On June 2, 2016, the National Electoral Council postponed its decision indefinitely.
On August 1, 2016, the chairman of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, declared that the necessary quorum had been achieved by one percent of the electorate in all 24 states. Of the 1.8 million signatures, 399,412 were found to be valid. The next step is for the CNE to determine the three days during which the signatures for the next round should be collected. According to surveys, 60% of those eligible to vote want to vote for a vote.
The CNE is delaying implementation to allow the referendum to take place after January 10, 2017. On August 9, 2016, the CNE announced that the second collection of signatures to call the voting referendum could take place at the end of October.
A statement by fifteen members of the OAS was directed against the delay strategy of the CNR , which called for the preparation of the referendum to be carried out "without delay". This declaration was not signed by the leftist governments of Bolivia , Ecuador and Nicaragua .
The CNE set the collection of signatures for the second round for October 26-28, 2016. This meant that the referendum could only be held in February 2017 at the earliest. Shortly before the start of the signature collection, the CNE stopped it on the pretext that courts in several regions had invalidated the first signature collection in June. The decisions of the aligned courts in five states ruled by the socialist ruling party to declare the votes inadmissible also triggered further legal persecution of leading opposition politicians by the Maduro regime. Travel bans were issued against opposition leader Henrique Capriles and seven other leading opposition politicians. Former parliamentary speaker Diosdado Cabello bluntly threatened to bring the opposition leadership to prison.
At the same time as the referendum was halted, the CNE canceled the local elections scheduled for autumn 2016 without giving any further reasons and announced that they would be held in 2017.
The National Assembly adopted after the deposition of the referendum by a large majority a resolution in which the decision of the CBE was called "collapse of the constitutional order," the one " coup tantamount to the Maduro regime".
After the possibilities of a democratic change of government were exhausted with the cancellation of the referendum, the opposition called for mass demonstrations and a general strike . The twelve-hour general strike, which was also supported by the industry association Conindustria, on Friday, October 28, 2016, was largely adhered to. The government announced the nationalization of the companies that had supported the general strike. The Mercosur foreign ministers discussed in Cartagena the exclusion of Venezuela for violating the Mercosur democratic charter. The Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Luis Almagro , accused the Maduro government of "having left the path of democracy with its latest decisions".
swell
- Venezuela's largest brewery stops production; in: FAZ from April 22, 2016, online
- Matthias Rüb: A country on the back burner; in: FAZ from May 2, 2016, online
- Planned referendum: 1.8 million people sign against President Maduro; in: SPON from May 2, 2016, online
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maduro referendum in Venezuela stopped . weser-kurier.de . October 21, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
- ↑ Carl Moses: Venezuela's misery. In: FAZ.net . January 3, 2017, accessed October 13, 2018 .
- ^ Matthias Rüb: Until the last day; in: FAZ of May 28, 2016, p. 3
- ^ Protests in Caracas; in: FAZ of June 4, 2016, p. 7
- ^ "Voting of Maduro: Referendum in Venezuela clears important hurdle"; Spiegel online from August 2, 2016, online
- ^ Debate about election and oil; in: TAZ of August 10, 2016, online
- ↑ OAS disagreed about deposition of Maduro; in: FAZ of August 13, 2016, p. 5
- ^ Campaign to vote President Maduro stopped; in: SPON from October 21, 2016, online
- ^ Power struggle in Venezuela; in: FAZ of October 22, 2016, p. 5
- ^ Parliament accuses Maduro's government of a coup; in SPON from October 24, 2016 online
- ↑ Venezuela's government announces expropriation of companies; in: FAZ of October 29, 2016, p. 6