Venezuelan officials push for 2017 Maduro recall vote

The election officials met with representatives of both the government and the opposition in an attempt to map out the road to the expected vote. Assuming that the opposition fulfills the remaining requirements for the referendum, "the event could be held in the middle of the first quarter of 2017," the commission said in a statement on Wednesday. Government opponents had hoped to hold the vote before January 10th - this would have triggered a new election in the event of Maduro's defeat. A later vote, on the other hand, would simply see Maduro succeeded by his vice-president, keeping the Socialist party in power at least until 2019. Since the beginning of the recall campaign, the opposition has repeatedly accused the electoral officials of dragging their feet to protect Maduro. "We reject the anti-constitutional elements of this announcement by the election board," said Jesus Torrealba, the head of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition, on Wednesday..More…