Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will face a recall referendum in August that could lead to a presidential election a month later if he is defeated at the polls.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez salutes supporters at a rally yesterday
National Electoral Council President Francisco Carrasquero said the body had ruled voters could go to the ballot box on August 15th to challenge Mr Chavez, a former army officer accused by his opponents of edging Venezuela toward communism.
After a year-long opposition campaign for a vote, it was a victory for foes of Mr Chavez who had feared that delays in holding the referendum could have dimmed their chances of ousting his left-wing government.
According to Venezuela's constitution, if Mr Chavez lost a recall held after August 19th, his vice president would take over until elections in December 2006. However if Mr Chavez loses a recall before that date, elections must be held within 30 days.
The referendum is the latest chapter in more than two years of turmoil over Mr Chavez's rule of the world's fifth largest oil exporting nation. The Venezuelan leader survived a coup two years ago and later weathered a two-month oil strike.
Mr Chavez was elected in 1998 - six years after leading a military rebellion - and re-elected in 2000. He says most Venezuelans support his efforts to redistribute the country's oil resources to battle poverty and has confidently forecast another victory.
"I'm sure in this referendum once more the majority will ratify their faith, not in Hugo Chavez, but in this project," he told a rally yesterday.
But his opponents say Mr Chavez's self-styled revolution has failed the poor and instead driven off investors and sharpened tensions between the social classes.
To win a referendum, his opponents must match or beat the 3.76 million votes he received in the 2000 election.
An alliance of opposition groups in December held a petition to collect the 2.4 million valid signatures - 20 per cent of the electorate - required by the constitution to trigger a recall.