In a televised press conference on Monday, electoral authorities said that opponents managed to collect enough signatures to begin the process to recall President Nicolas Maduro. According to the National Election Council (CNE) 407.622 signatures were collected with only 1.326 instances of voter identity fraud.

By gathering 1% of voter signatures in all of Venezuela's 24 states, the opposition has completed the first step in the process of holding a recall referendum. The following step is to collect signatures from at least 20% of the country's voters, by an as-yet-undetermined date. The opposition is keen on ousting President Maduro by 2017 so new elections can be held, however the process is unlikely to occur this fast due to many other legal regulations that need to be fulfilled along the way.

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Venezuela is facing a major crisis - the Latin American country has the world's highest inflation rate at 180 percent. Maduro says that the collapse is a result of an "economic war" by capitalists. However, critics say it's the result of economic mismanagement.

For more on Venezuela’s crisis click here, here, here and here.