2016 Venezuelan recall referendum project

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (July 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Proyecto de referéndum revocatorio de Venezuela de 2016]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|es|Proyecto de referéndum revocatorio de Venezuela de 2016}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

A process to hold a recall referendum to vote on recalling Maduro was started on May 2, 2016. On that date, opposition leaders in Venezuela handed in a petition to the National Electoral Council (CNE) that started a several stage process.^[1] The Venezuelan government stated that if enough signatures were collected, a recall vote would be held no sooner than 2017.^[2] On 21 October 2016, the CNE suspended the referendum days before preliminary signature-gatherings were to be held.^[3]