Venezuela recall faces 'impossible' conditions; turnout low

Venezuelans are getting a chance on to demand a recall of President Nicolás Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelans got a chance on to demand a recall of President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday — but a government-friendly electoral board imposed limits that backers said were impossible to meet. That added to complaints about a system sharply tilted in favor of the governing socialist party.

The National Electoral Council said that nearly 4.2 million people at a minimum would have to sign petitions for a recall within a 12-hour period at 1,200 electoral centers.

That would require multiple signatures a minute at each of the voting centers —- and there was no sign of such a turnout Wednesday at several centers visited by The Associated Press in the nation's capital, Caracas.

“The recall referendum is absolutely blocked,” Luis Lander, director of the independent Venezuelan Electoral Observatory, said this week. “The conditions make it absolutely and totally impossible.”