Guyana filed a Request for the indication of provisional measures pursuant to Article 41 of the Statute of the Court. Guyana stated that “[o]n 23 October 2023, the Government of Venezuela, through its National Electoral Council, published a list of five questions that it plans to put before the Venezuelan people in a . . . ‘Consultative Referendum’ on 3 December 2023”. In Guyana’s view the purpose of the referendum was “to obtain responses that would support Venezuela’s decision to abandon [the current proceedings before the Court], and to resort instead to unilateral measures to ‘resolve’ the controversy with Guyana by formally annexing and integrating into Venezuela all the territory at issue in these proceedings, which comprises more than two-thirds of Guyana.  The proceedings on the merits were once again suspended pending a decision of the Court.