Venezuela opposition picks Chavez challenger
State governor Henrique Capriles (pictured) won Venezuela's first-ever
opposition primary on Sunday and will challenge President Hugo Chavez in
October elections. Opposition groups have joined forces, hoping to keep
Chavez from winning a third term.
By News Wires
AFP - Youthful state governor Henrique Capriles on Sunday decisively won
Venezuela's first opposition primary and will challenge longtime
President Hugo Chavez in an October election, vote officials said.
"With 95 percent of votes counted, Capriles won 1.8 million votes" ahead
of his closest competitor, governor Pablo Perez, with 867,000 votes,
commission president Teresa Albanes said, noting that 2.9 million votes
were cast in a first-ever primary to pick a unity candidate.
Analysts had said a turnout of just 10 percent of the 18 million
eligible voters – or 1.8 million – would be seen as a success,
indicating voters in this highly polarized South American nation were
keen to be heard.
Five candidates ran in the contest won by the 39-year-old Capriles. In
third place was lawmaker Maria Corina Machado with 103,500 votes,
followed by diplomat Diego Arria (35,070) and ex union organizer Pablo
Medina (14,009).
The opposition joined forces in an effort to defeat Chavez, a leftist
firebrand ally of Cuba and harsh critic of the United States who has
been criticized for jailing political opponents and restricting media
opposition.
The 57-year-old Chavez, who last year underwent cancer surgery in Havana
and now claims to be cancer-free, is seeking a third six-year term in
the October 7 vote. But he faces challenges, from rising crime and
corruption to the drop from record highs in oil prices, the country's
main revenue source.
Capriles, telegenic and energetic, has been in politics since he was 25.
His campaign got a boost last month when Leopoldo Lopez, a popular
former mayor, dropped out and endorsed him.
He describes his politics as center-left, and has argued that Venezuela
can "replicate" Brazil's model of economic development: allowing markets
to play their role while also making social progress a priority.
Perez, 42, is with the Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New Era) party, and governs
Zulia, Venezuela's most populous and wealthiest state.
Capriles says he wants to end the country's deep political polarization
and has pledged to fight poverty.
He also campaigned with a conciliatory message and avoided directly
criticizing Chavez, the main political and economic ally of Cuba, the
only one-party communist regime in the Americas.
Unlike the governors, the other three candidates had aggressively
challenged Chavez.
A lawyer with movie-star looks whose family includes Jewish immigrants,
Capriles would seem to embody a generational change as well as a
political one.
Capriles and Perez emerged in recent months as favorites "precisely
because they sought to depolarize the country and refrained from
confronting Chavez," said historian Margarita Lopez Maya.
Many of those going to the polls welcome the opportunity.
"We want a change. I have always voted here against the government,"
said 35-year-old shopkeeper Alexis Mendoza.
"I'm voting for my country, for the future, for democracy and freedom,"
added 45-year-old bank employee Jose Luis Maldonado, who said he
believed government officials were taking pictures of voters to try to
intimidate them.
In January, the opposition parties unveiled a unity platform focusing on
free-market economics and emphasizing public safety.
The document calls for an end to price controls in place since 2003;
adoption of a competitive currency exchange rate; reassessing Chavez's
creation of a socialist state; and returning autonomy to the central bank.
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