MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelan ruling party forecasts landslide victory

Venezuela's ruling party anticipates a landslide victory in next December's presidential election with over 10 million votes, equivalent to two thirds of the official electoral registry, said the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) leader, William Lara.

A total of 16.6 million Venezuelans are entitled to vote December 3 when President Hugo Chavez post is up for re-election.

Lara said the ruling party could count on a core of six million Venezuelans who voted not to revoke Chavez's mandate in the August 2004 referendum. At the time the number was equivalent to almost 60% of those who cast ballots.

MVR also expects another 2.7 million new voters to register, two million of whom will back Chavez's bid to remain in power through 2013, Lara underlined.

He added that President Chavez's party was confident it could attract another two million voters from among those who supported to recall Chavez two years ago and from voters who normally don't cast ballots.

Lara added that the MVR's "real opponent" will be abstention, claiming that the United States will encourage voters not to participate plus attempts to discredit electoral authorities and the electoral process.

Venezuelan parties and organizations opposed to Chavez, meanwhile, have been discussing the possibility of holding primary elections to decide on an only candidate to dispute the December presidential vote.

Chavez opposition boycotted the December 2005 legislative election thus enabling the ruling party and allied organizations to get hold of all Congressional seats.

President Chavez, a firebrand populist who re-vindicates Socialism and is a close friend of Cuba's Fidel Castro has survived a coup, a months' long crippling general strike and a recall referendum.