  |
|
Chavez ends campaining with Caracas rally
Reuters/Edwin Montilva
Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flood Caracas's centre streets during Chavez's closing campaign rally in Caracas November 26, 2006. Venezuela's presidential election will be held December 3, 2006AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 11 27 06Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Sunday marked the last day of campaigning ahead of presidential polls with a massive rally here in which he promised to shepherd a new era for his country.
Under a bright sun, Chavez told hundreds of thousands of supporters that it was time to give "more power to the people, more power to communities, the poor, the people who cry, work and study."
"The transition process has ended," the fierce US critic said at his last rally before the December 3 vote.
"Those who know (our) agenda can see that we know just where we are going. The transition from the Venezuela of the 20th century to the Venezuela of the 21st century is over, after eight years of hard fighting," he said.
On Saturday, opposition candidate Manuel Rosales walked to three main hubs in Caracas to muster crowds he hoped would turn into a "Grand Avalanche" against the president.
"The government is going to fall!" shouted Rosales to supporters. "It is going to fall at the voting booth."
| But opinion polls forecast a landslide for the president, who has held power since 1998 by lavishing funds on the poor and delivering regular fiery condemnations of the United States as an imperialist country set on undermining his leadership in Latin America.
In a poll released Friday by Zogby International and the University of Miami School of Communication, Chavez had the support of 60 percent of voters, compared to 31 percent for Zulia state Governor Rosales.
Another one percent of voters favor comedian Benjamin Rausseo, the pollsters said.
Despite the strong support for Chavez, the race has tightened ahead of the vote.
An October poll gave him a 35-point margin -- 59 percent to 24 percent, when, at the start of the campaign, Rosales mustered only six percent support.
Rosales' supporters are pinning their hopes on a "hidden vote" -- voters who don't dare express their real dislike for Chavez to pollsters.
Rosales' hopes hinge, in part, on the 30 percent of people expected to abstain from voting because of doubts about the independence of the National Elections Council under Chavez.
Behind the election is the contest between Chavez and Washington for influence over Latin America, with Chavez wielding his leftist ideology and Venezuela's oil wealth to garner region support.
Washington has frequently called Chavez a threat to regional security, while in September Chavez denounced US President George W. Bush as a "devil," in a speech before the UN General Assembly.
In the testy election climate, Venezuela's interior minister announced that group assemblies would be banned on election eve and voting day. They also might ban announcements of exit poll results.
The election will be overseen by observers from the Organization of the American States and the European Union.
AFP 27 0544 GMT 11 06
Copyright© 2006 afp. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels