A national elections board finds problems with signatures on thousands of petition forms in the campaign to remove Venezuela's president from office.

BY FRANCES ROBLES

CARACAS - Dealing a serious blow to an opposition drive to oust President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's elections board ruled that more than one million people who signed petitions demanding a recall referendum will have to confirm their signatures.

The country's umbrella opposition organization, Democratic Coordinator, denounced the decision as unconstitutional and said it would no longer recognize the authority of the National Electoral Council, known as CNE.

''The referendum is hanging by a thread,'' said elections board member Sobella Mejía, who voted against the move. ``The referendum is in danger.''

The action by the CNE was the latest -- and some say worst -- obstacle so far in the quest to drive out Chávez through a recall referendum.

Opposition forces argue that the leftist former army colonel is establishing an undemocratic regime, and have been trying to depose him for two years. After massive rallies and a general strike failed to topple him, an alliance of political parties, labor and business interests organized a four-day signature drive seeking a recall referendum. Chávez says many signatures were fraudulent.

At issue are 148,000 petition sheets where volunteers collecting signatures helped voters fill out the form.

Having so many petition forms where the names and national identification card numbers were in identical handwriting rang alarm bells at the politically divided CNE.

The council voted 3-2 late Tuesday that the people who signed those sheets must come forward and corroborate their signatures. Otherwise they will be tossed out.

Verification of the signatures would involve publishing all of them -- enough to fill a newspaper. The CNE would then set up 360 tables nationwide, where signers would have to come forward and state whether the signature is authentic.

Critics condemned the step, saying it amounts to another petition drive.

CHAVEZ SUPPORTERS

Ironically, the CNE's decision also threatens the signatures that Chávez supporters collected to request recall drives against opposition legislators.

''This is going to be a logistical nightmare,'' one international observer said. ``You're talking about over a million people. We don't even know if it can be done.''

The Organization of American States and the Carter Center, in Venezuela overseeing the referendum process, held a 1:30 a.m. press conference Wednesday, urging the CNE to verify the signatures by checking a statistically sound random sample.

CNE member Jorge Rodríguez said he had ''no problem'' with studying the suggestion.

''The OAS and The Carter Center consider the concern legitimate in that it is necessary to determine whether one person signed for another, clearly violating the rules,'' the organizations wrote in a statement.

Diplomats here say OAS representatives, upset over perceived government stonewalling, are close to declaring the referendum hopeless.

Such a move would be a black eye to the government, which had promised to permit the recall referendum without excessive red tape.

The statement signed by both groups said they are committed to staying to the end.

Vice President José Vicente Rangel urged the organizations to speak out against opposition groups that he alleged are planning a ''coup against the constitution'' by not recognizing the CNE.

''The CNE has not expressed its will to invalidate every signature,'' Rodríguez said. ``But nor are we going to bow to blackmail and validate every signature just because.''

FILLING OUT FORM

Rodríguez said he was confident that many of the people are honest signers who simply got help filling out the form.

''But I ask myself, why? Why did they do it this way knowing we could reject it?'' Rodríguez said. ``That's where reasonable doubt comes in, where there could have been irregularities.''

Even pro-opposition members of the CNE consider the outlook bleak. ''This decision makes holding a referendum practically an illusion,'' said Ezequiel Zamora, the council's vice president.