The Supreme Court added yet another obstacle to the already tortuous path of the recall referendum. By decision of the Constitutional Court, the promoters of the referendum must not only win but must also obtain a number of votes higher than that obtained by the officer when elected.
“The Constitution does not want the revocation of a political mandate, unless by not only a majority of votes against the elected official, but a higher majority than that which put them in office in the first place,” explained the highest interpreter of the Constitution on a presentation by the late judge Antonio García García.
The Constitutional Court ruled on this case October 21, 2003, following a request for interpretation of Article 72 of the Constitution, filed by Councilman Carlos Herrera on August 4 that year. At that time, the opposition was promoting a recall referendum to remove late President Hugo Chávez from office.
The provision established that the activation of the referendum required the endorsement of 20 percent of voters and then, a turnout of at least 25 percent of registered voters for the process to be valid. In addition to these two conditions, the Supreme Court established a third condition that hampers this popular initiative. “According to our current Constitution, if there is a number in the original election, which is fundamental for the subsequent referendum, the mandate of an elected official can only be revoked if the same number of people, at least, vote against them,” the Court explained.
Extract of the judgment
“(…) the mandate of the official can only be revoked by vote of at least a number of people equal to the number of voters who elected him or her at the time, as a way to prevent officials who earned their post with a high percentage of popular support from losing it by a simple majority. These are the demands of democracy: … in fact, if more people vote in the referendum to keep the official in office than to remove him or her, the official should remain in office, even if a sufficient number of people vote to remove him or her.”