Venezuela sets election for April 14

VENEZUELA: Venezuelan political parties begin registering candidates Sunday for a snap election on April 14, setting the stage for a bruising campaign to succeed the late President Hugo Chavez.

The national electoral council set the poll date on Saturday one day after Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s handpicked successor, was sworn in as acting president in a ceremony largely boycotted by the opposition, which slammed it as unconstitutional. Shortly after the date was set, the main opposition coalition announced it had unanimously chosen Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October election, as its unity candidate again.

“We have all recognized Henrique Capriles Radonski as the person to embody this option of change,” said Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, executive secretary of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). Capriles wrote on Twitter that he was “grateful” for the offer and would announce soon whether he will accept the nomination. The Miranda state governor was picked by the MUD last year in an unprecedented primary.

The electoral council said candidates will be able to register on Sunday and Monday and that the campaign would be short, lasting from April 2 to April 11.

A recent survey by pollsters Hinterlaces gave Maduro a 14-point advantage over Capriles, though the opposition leader has questioned the firm’s reliability in the past.

AFP