Juan Barreto, AFP | Lilian Tintori (right), the wife of jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, signs the form to activate the referendum on cutting Maduro's term short, in Caracas on April 27, 2016.

Venezuela's opposition presented reams of signatures to election authorities Monday calling for a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro, whom it blames for the country's crushing economic crisis.

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Venezuelans fed up with food shortages, soaring inflation and now a paralyzing electricity crunch have flocked to sign a petition for a recall referendum, according to the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).

It said it had presented 1.85 million signatures -- more than nine times the number needed to launch the referendum process -- to the National Electoral Board.

MUD executive secretary Jesus Torrealba said 80 boxes packed with referendum petitions had been presented to the authorities.

However, board official Tania D'Amelio suggested Sunday on Twitter that the authorities might not start verifying the signatures until late May.

That drew opposition cries of bias in favor of Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

"There's no doubt about it... Tania D'Amelio is a supporter and unconditional activist of the PSUV and is working to prevent a recall referendum this year," said Henry Ramos Allup, the speaker of the opposition-controlled legislature.

Racing against clock

Opponents are racing to hold a recall referendum before the end of the year.

Under Venezuela's constitution, after January 2017 a successful recall vote would transfer power to Maduro's vice president rather than trigger new elections.

The constitution gives the authorities five days to verify the signatures collected by the opposition.

But D'Amelio indicated that the five-day countdown would begin only once the full 30 days allotted for circulating the petition had lapsed.

The opposition insists there is no need to wait until the end of the 30-day period because it already surpassed the required 200,000 signatures "in record time."

If the electoral board accepts the signatures as valid -- far from a sure bet -- the opposition will then have to collect four million more for the board to organize the vote.

New time zone

Adding to Venezuela's woes, Maduro's government has taken a series of drastic measures to deal with the electricity crisis, instituting four-hour daily blackouts across most of the country, reducing the public-sector workweek to two days and closing schools on Fridays.

The power cuts sparked riots and looting last week in Venezuela's second-largest city, Maracaibo.

On Sunday the country also set its clocks forward half an hour in an attempt to curb evening electricity demand.

Maduro blames the power crunch on the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has unleashed the worst drought in 40 years, reducing the reservoirs at Venezuela's hydroelectric dams.

But the opposition says mismanagement is to blame for the power crisis as well as the recession and shortages.

Maduro warns of 'rebellion'

Maduro defiantly urged his supporters on Sunday to launch a "rebellion" if the opposition succeeds in ousting him.

"If the oligarchy someday does something against me and manages to take this palace, I order you to declare yourselves in rebellion and decree an indefinite general strike," he told supporters massed outside the presidential palace in a fiery May Day speech.

A recent poll found that more than two-thirds of Venezuelans want Maduro, elected president by a razor-thin margin in 2013, to leave office.

Once-booming Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves, has plunged into economic chaos as global crude prices have collapsed.

The import-dependent country faces acute shortages of food and basic goods like toilet paper due to a lack of foreign currency, more than 96 percent of which it gets from oil sales.

The economy, which has been in recession since 2013, shrank 5.7 percent last year. The government said inflation came in at more than 180 percent last year.

Analysts however estimate the inflation rate is much higher. The International Monetary Fund forecasts it will hit 700 percent this year.

Maduro has nevertheless vowed to press on with the socialist "revolution" launched in 1999 by his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

(AFP)

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