Monday 11 March 2013

Venezuela to elect president in April

Venezuelan authorities set 14 April as the date for the country's presidential elections, wherein the socialist Acting President Nicolás Maduro Moros will compete with Henrique Capriles Radonsky a state governor who will represent MUD, the Democratic Unity Table of conservative and liberal parties. Capriles ran for the presidency once and lost to Hugo Chávez in elections on 7 Octobre 2012; he said on 10 April that he realised many viewed his second candidacy as akin to being taken "to the slaughterhouse." But he vowed to "fight for every vote," telling Maduro "I won't leave the way open for you, you are going to have to defeat me with votes...I am going to fight for this country because I carry it in my heart," the broadcaster Globovisión reported. He observed "Maduro is not Chávez" and the late president's "entourage," which he stated many had blamed for "poor results" during the Chávez presidencies, "is the one that wants to govern now. It is that entourage that wants to take power with much fear, and abusing power." Maduro replied the same day, observing at a gathering of Venezuelan Communists that he did not claim to be Chávez but was "a son of Chávez," Venezuelan state television reported. He accused Capriles of throwing a "poisoned dart" at state institutions and the late president with his comments, motivated by "hate," El Universal reported. Capriles said in his press conference that Maduro and his clique "coldly calculated" an election schedule while Chávez was ill - or perhaps even dead - while maintaining Venezuelans ignorant of his state in the weeks following his December surgery in Cuba; Chávez he alleged never signed decrees from his bed as claimed. Capriles said "it is no secret for anyone" that Maduro was in rivalry with the parliamentary Speaker Diosdado Cabello who opponents have said should, constitutionally speaking, have become Acting President.