VENEZUELA: MILLIONS OF VENEZUELENS PREPARE TO VOTE IN COUNTRY'S FORTHCOMING GENERAL ELECTIONS
Record ID:
328687
VENEZUELA: MILLIONS OF VENEZUELENS PREPARE TO VOTE IN COUNTRY'S FORTHCOMING GENERAL ELECTIONS
- Title: VENEZUELA: MILLIONS OF VENEZUELENS PREPARE TO VOTE IN COUNTRY'S FORTHCOMING GENERAL ELECTIONS
- Date: 28th July 2000
- Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (JULY 28 AND RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF STREETS AND CAMPAIGN POSTERS (3 SHOTS) 0.13 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) NACY LOPEZ, CHAVEZ SUPPORTER SAYING: "We want what's better for this country. We're supporting Chavez." 0.23 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) GREGORIO PEREZ, ARIAS SUPPORTER, SAYING: "The current president only looks for enemies. We need a president that will try to mend things with the people - one who will lead without any resentment." 0.37 4. VARIOUS OF STREET SCENES (4 SHOTS) 0.57 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ALFREDO KELLER, POLITICAL EXPERT, SAYING: "A government incapable of satisfying demands and with the economy going deeper into crisis will face a severe climate of political chaos. Unless the president makes effective changes in his strategy and improves relations with the executive powers and the private sector, it will not achieve the necessary confidence and ideal economy." 1.32 6. SLV: NEWS CONFERENCE 1.37 7. SCU: CAMERA OPERATOR 1.40 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RUBEN PERINA, OAS LEADER, SAYING THE ORGANIZATION HAS NOTICED IMPORTANT CHANGES 2.04 9. VBARIOUS OF ARMY GARDING VOTING PAPERS (6 SHOTS) 2.30 10. SCU: OPPOSITION LEADER ARIAS SAYING HE WILL BRING CHANGES TO HIS COUNTRY 3.06 RECENT 11. VARIOUS OF HUGO CHAVEZ DURING HIS CAMPAIGN (3 SHOTS) 3.21 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 12th August 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Reuters ID: LVA5IMG9X3FXXQAKI0I8265GECEL
- Story Text: Millions of Venezuelans are preparing to go to the
polls on Sunday (July 28) to vote in general elections. The
chief-rival to the current President Hugo Chavez is seen as
doomed by local opinion polls.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's chief rival in
general elections Sunday (July 30) refuses to be cast in the
role of doomed runner-up, despite opinion polls that show him
trailing by about 20 percentage points.
Former state governor Francisco Arias, whose moderate,
pro-business tone contrasts with Chavez's rabble-rousing
leftist rhetoric, also rejects the "candidate of the elite"
tag that has dogged him since the start of the campaign.
"It's absolutely certain that I will win," he told foreign
correspondents on Friday. "We have many votes in the
slums."
According to recent surveys carried out by a number of
respected pollsters, Chavez is expected to coast to an easy
victory in Sunday's vote, backed by faithful support from the
poor majority of the South American oil exporting nation.
Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel said on Friday that
Venezuelans already "take for granted" the reelection of the
46-year-old former paratrooper who has forged ties with Cuba
while rebuffing U.S. humanitarian aid and drug overflights.
But Arias, 49, a retired artillery officer who joined
Chavez in leading a failed 1992 coup, argued opinion polls
were misleading because many Venezuelans were afraid to
publicly declare their support for him.
"People are hiding their feelings out of fear," he said,
arguing that Chavez activists in major cities' poor slums were
bullying others to try to achieve a repeat of his 1998
landslide election triumph.
Sunday's elections for president, a National Assembly,
state governors and mayors, were called to comply with a new
constitution approved at a national referendum in December.
The elections were postponed from May 28 due to glitches in
the electronic voting system.
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