Vzla: Stifling the voices of dissent

Venezuela's top electoral official said on Tuesday that only between 1.7 million and 1.8 million opposition signatures seeking a referendum against President Hugo Chavez had been found valid so far, not enough to trigger a vote at this point.

The minimum legally required for a recall vote to go ahead is 2.4 million signatures.

More than a million signatures were negated so that the total could fall short of the required number. By this, the Chavez government has shown total disdain for the democratic process. With Castro as his role model, no wonder.

This report from the Carter Center and the OAS demonstrates the Great Lie of the Chavistas.

The Carter Center and the OAS said that they had participated in the process and check if it was transparent and followed the norms. They said the process had sufficient controls and checks, witnesses and observers. They disagree with the criteria of not including those forms which have the same handwriting but not the same signature. They said that they saw that in the signing process when the signatures were being collected, people at the poll booths aided those signing, filling the data and that they believed the CNE should have given the benefit of the doubt to the people.

Power, by any means necessary. Heaven help Venezuela and her people.