Chavez predicts big win in Venezuela election
CARACAS |
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez forecast he would win October’s election with more than 60 percent of the vote after a new poll showed on Tuesday he held a large lead over his opposition rival.
The survey taken in May by respected local pollster Datanalisis found that 43.6 percent of voters in the South American OPEC nation favored Chavez, versus 27.7 percent for the Democratic Unity coalition’s candidate, Henrique Capriles.
“The opposition know we are going to win the election. We have to win it by K.O. We are going to win the election with more than 60 percent of the votes,” Chavez said on state TV.
Chavez’s 15.9 point lead was slightly smaller than a 17.2-point margin in the previous month’s survey by Datanalisis.
The portion of undecided voters in the poll was a substantial 28.7 percent – bearing out analysts’ consensus that there is a lot left to play for.
The 57-year-old Chavez, who has been battling cancer for a year, remains popular in his 14th year in power due to his oil-financed welfare spending and his enduring emotional connection with the country’s poor majority.
But Capriles, 39, a state governor, is drawing big crowds on the campaign trail and exuding an image of youth and energy that he counts on to tip the balance come voting day on October 7.
The opposition candidate wants to end Chavez’s radical, statist policies and install a Brazilian-style “modern left” administration.
The Datanalisis survey was in line with most of the country’s best-known pollsters, who give Chavez a double-digit lead with less than four months remaining until the ballot.
“Almost 100 days now (before the vote),” Chavez said late on Tuesday. “A gap of 20 points … is impossible to reverse.”
Opinion polls are notoriously controversial in Venezuela. Both sides regularly accuse the companies that publish them of being biased and having political links.
“All the serious
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/20/us-venezuela-election-idUSBRE85J00720120620
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Posted by RobertButler
on Jun 20 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
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