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Sunday’s presidential vote in venezuela:
Chavez, rival hold huge rallies
VENEZUELA: Venezuelans packed the streets of Caracas and other cities
Thursday to hear President Hugo Chavez and opposition rival Henrique
Capriles make their final pitches ahead of weekend elections.
As a downpour fell on Caracas, Chavez, who is seeking a new six-year
term in Sunday’s presidential vote, addressed hundreds of thousands of
supporters who waved flags, danced and chanted: “Ooh! aah! Chavez won’t
go!” “You have to vote early, so that by noon victory is indisputable,”
the leftist leader said as he took the stage, skipping past his covered
podium to address the crowd under the rain on the last day of official
campaigning.
“Wake up at 3:00 am, drink a good coffee, chocolate, eat breakfast
and everybody vote for the future, life... vote for Chavez,” said the
58-year-old president, who has led Venezuela for almost 14 years.
While Chavez remains the odds-on favorite to win, Capriles has given
the former paratrooper his biggest election challenge.
Capriles cut the president’s lead by half to 10 points over the past
four months, accusing Chavez of dividing the country while failing to
curb a crime wave, end food shortages and provide proper housing to
millions. Chavez says Capriles represents a corrupt, far-right old guard
that would take the country backward by undoing his socialist agenda.
Rosa Castro, 50, a dog groomer with a Chavez tattoo on her back, said
the president deserved a new term to continue his leftist policies.
“This country used to be down, we are just starting to get up on our
feet,” she said, waving a flag that read “Chavez, heart of my nation.”
Capriles, a 40-year-old former Miranda state governor, took his
door-to-door campaign to the states of Cojedes, Apure and Lara.
“Nobody must forget to vote, and every one of you must also bring
other people to vote,” Capriles told supporters in San Carlos, in the
western state of Cojedes.
“End the divisions, the confrontations and the fights,” he said in
the southwestern state of Apure.
AFP |
