Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has said no referendum on ending his administration would be held until next year.
Mr Maduro's opponents are racing to call a referendum before 10 January, as a successful recall vote before that deadline would trigger new elections rather than transfer power to the vice president.
For months now, Mr Maduro has faced increasing hostility, with opponents accusing him of driving oil-rich Venezuela to the brink of economic collapse and launching a marathon process to call a vote on ousting him from office.
"We must respect whatever the electoral authorities" decide, Mr Maduro said at a pro-government event in Caracas.
Opposition members have said that they want the vote to be held in October or November 2016.
But the president insisted that they were too late.
"If they had wanted to seek a referendum this year, they would have to have requested it by January 11 of this year, for them to have had enough time, if all legal requirements were met," Mr Maduro said.
The referendum petition was submitted on 2 May.
Mr Maduro's comments came after the National Electoral Board (CNE) announced it would take fingerprint scans from 20-24 June to confirm the identity of 1.3 million people who signed the opposition's referendum petition.
Mr Maduro said the government would be suing to have the referendum request itself revoked, filing such a measure at the Supreme Court tomorrow.
He maintained that fraud was committed, claiming that the rolls of signatures included 11,000 dead people and 2,000 convicts.
Protests, looting and violent crime have been mounting in Venezuela as the country reels from shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity.
On Thursday, police fired tear gas to break up a protest led by politicians in the opposition-majority congress, who tried to march on the CNE's headquarters.
A brawl broke out and punches flew when the protesters faced Maduro supporters.
Mr Maduro blamed the violence on his political enemies and vowed to throw the "provocateurs" into prison.
