Venezuela

[Cluster]

Venezuelan opposition claims enough signatures to cut Chavez term

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CARACAS, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The Venezuelan opposition Sumate claimed Friday that it has collected enough new signatures in order to conduct a referendum on cutting short President Hugo Chavez's term, according to local reports.

Reports quoted Alberto Quiroz Corradi, an opposition leader, assaying that the opposition now has 867,000 more signatures, or more than the 600,000 that would be needed for a referendum to be called.

The opposition had said it collected 3.4 million signatures to back a petition seeking a recall referendum against Chavez. But the electoral council claimed that all but 1.8 million of the signatures are questionable, leaving the opposition well short of the minimum 2.4 million signatures needed to force a referendum.

Earlier Friday, Sumate's director, Luis Enrique Palacios, declared that the data base presented by the electoral body "does not support" its conclusion that 1.3 million signatures are not valid.

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