Venezuelan Opposition Prepares for Non-Recognition of Chavez Victory [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuelan Opposition Prepares for Non-Recognition of Chavez Victory
Posted: 04/09/2012 09:24

Venezuelans go to the polls on 7 October to elect their president. The main choice is between the incumbent Hugo Chavez and Henrique Capriles Radonski, a right-wing state governor with strong ties to the country's elite.

Yet with more than a month to go, sections of Venezuela's right wing opposition coalition seem to have made up their mind about the outcome. With substantial poll leads for Hugo Chávez they appear to be preparing to decry the official results as a fraud.

Ricardo Hausmann, a key Capriles economic adviser, recently said his campaign will announce their own results to the world before the official announcement is made by Venezuela's independent National Electoral Council (CNE), the equivalent of Britain's Electoral Commission. Their approach seems to be that unless the results go their way, the CNE's official results will be rejected by the opposition.

As Eleazar Diza Rangel, editor of Venezuela's main national newspaper Ultimas Noticias - broadly sympathetic to the anti-Chávez opposition - recently explained the purpose of attempts "to claim fraud at the coming presidential elections of 7 October (would be) in order not to recognise the people's will".

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-francisco-dominguez/venezuelan-opposition-pre_b_1853398.html