A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Venezuela opposition challenges Maduro with unofficial referendum
Venezuelan
opposition leader and Governor of Miranda state Henrique Capriles
attends a meeting of the Venezuelan coalition of opposition parties
(MUD) in Caracas, Venezuela July 3, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Venezuelan
opposition leader and Governor of Miranda state Henrique Capriles (L)
shakes hands with Julio Borges, President of the National Assembly and
deputy of the Venezuelan coalition of opposition parties (MUD), next to
Henri Falcon (C), governor of the state of Lara, during a meeting of the
MUD in Caracas, Venezuela July 3, 2017.
CARACAS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro's foes announced plans on
Monday for an unofficial referendum to let Venezuelans have their say on
his plan to rewrite the constitution and the opposition's alternative
push for an election to replace him.
The opposition, starting a fourth month of street protests against the
socialist government it decries as a dictatorship, will organise the
symbolic vote for July 16 as part of its strategy to delegitimise the
unpopular Maduro.
Venezuelans will also be asked their view on the military's
responsibility for "recovering constitutional order" and the formation
of a new "national unity" government, the Democratic Unity coalition
announced.
"Let the people decide!" said Julio Borges, the president of the
opposition-led National Assembly, confirming what two senior opposition
sources told Reuters earlier on Monday.
The opposition's planned vote, likely to be dismissed by the government,
would be two weeks ahead of a planned July 30 vote proposed by Maduro
for a Constituent Assembly with powers to reform the constitution and
supersede other institutions.
"The government is trying to formalise dictatorship," said opposition
leader Henrique Capriles, warning the South American OPEC nation was
approaching "zero hour".
According to a recent survey by pollster Datanalisis, seven in 10
Venezuelans are opposed to rewriting the constitution, which was
reformed by late leader Hugo Chavez in 1999.
With anger running high over a devastating economic crisis under Maduro,
turnout for the opposition's referendum would likely be high, although
the coalition needs to pull off a complicated logistical feat in just
two weeks and without state support.
Maduro, 54, Chavez's unpopular successor, says the assembly is the only
way to bring peace to Venezuela after the deaths of at least 84 people
in and around anti-government unrest since the start of April.
"The people have a right to vote and the people will vote on July 30,
rain or shine!" Maduro said to cheers during a speech at an open-air
event on Monday with candidates to the new assembly, during which he
also prayed and danced.
Opponents say Maduro's plan is a ruse to consolidate the ruling
Socialist Party's grip on power and avoid a conventional free election
that opinion polls show he would lose.
Critics also accuse the government of threatening people with layoffs or
loss of state-provided homes if they do not vote. Maduro on Monday
urged state workers to participate, saying for instance that every
single employee of state oil company PDVSA should cast a ballot.
'Darkness' Not Forever
The next presidential vote is due by the end of 2018, but protesters
have been demanding it be brought forward, even as Maduro's opponents
worry about how free and fair such a vote would be.
The two highest-profile potential opposition candidates for a
presidential election are Capriles, who has been barred from holding
office, and Leopoldo Lopez, who is in jail.
Opposition protesters also want solutions to a crushing economic crisis,
freedom for hundreds of jailed activists, and independence for the
National Assembly.
Maduro, a former foreign minister who was narrowly elected in 2013 after
Chavez's death from cancer, says protesting opponents are seeking a
coup with U.S. support.
His allies say that a new Constituent Assembly would annul the existing
legislature and would also remove chief state prosecutor Luisa Ortega,
who has split with the socialists during the crisis and become a thorn
in their side.
Officials have turned on Ortega and are petitioning the Supreme Court to
remove her. Tensions rose on Monday with the comptroller's office
announcing a national audit of state prosecutors' offices while the
Supreme Court's constitutional chamber issued a decision saying she had
"abused her power."
Ortega's office described it as "revenge for the current institutional
crisis" and accused comptroller officials of "abuses" in trying to enter
buildings without prior notice.
Her office later said it had requested information from the United
States about two nephews of Venezuela's first lady who were found guilty
of trying to carry out a multimillion-dollar drug deal, a demand likely
to anger Maduro who has tried to play down the controversial case.
Ortega's office also said it was recusing 17 magistrates of the Supreme Court.
Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Andreina Aponte; Writing by
Andrew Cawthorne and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Frances Kerry and Mary
Milliken