Latin America – The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is looking to be re-elected today Sunday, October 7, 2012 running against young former governor Henrique Capriles, who has been outspoken about socialist model change in presidential elections for over a decade.
Long lines were forming early in the country’s 13,800 polling stations. In Venezuela voter turnout is traditionally very high as well voter fraud.
Over 130,000 soldiers were deployed in the country, said the official channel VTV. There has been some conflict, but not nearly as much as many predicted.
Chavez is hoping to deepen his socialist revolution but on the streets there is a consensus that Capriles will be the victor, even though the president leads most polls. But Capriles ran an aggressive campaign covering the entire country, in a fight that he compared to that of David and Goliath.
Chavez, now 58, has been struggling in recent months to show he has full recovered from cancer, detected in 2011.
In 2006, the opposition united behind the candidacy of Manuel Rosales, was swept by the president, who won 62% of the votes.
The election results will be announced by the CNE at night when the trend is “irreversible.
Nearly 200,000 trained witnesses will make a count of the records in polling stations.
The electoral system is 100% automated except abroad, where voting is manual and are called to cover 100,000 people.
Experts from the U.S. Carter Center ruled this week that there may be fraud and said that is guaranteed ballot secrecy.
More than 200 international observers, among them a delegation of UNASUR and a Brazilian delegation, will observe the voting process.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica
