MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelan December presidential campaign takes off

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez officially registered Saturday his reelection bid for the 2007-2013. Thousands of supporters walked with Chavez to the seat of the National Electoral Council, CNE, in downtown Caracas, where more followers from his party, the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) and the Bloc for Change coalition had been convened.

Venezuelan presidential candidates have until August 24 to register for the coming December 3 election when 16 million Venezuelans are eligible to cast a ballot.

A CNE special commission received the populist president and accepted his nomination, proposed by leaders of the MVR and the coalition of seven minority parties that support the Chavez administration. Venezuelan electoral law requires that the nomination of candidates to elective office be done by political parties.

Chavez who has ruled since February 1999 was first elected in late 1998 and then re-elected in 2000 which followed the approval of his "Bolivarian" Constitution.

So far three independent candidates have registered, Carmelo Romano, Jose Tineo and Bernabe Gutierrez. Next week the governor of Zulia state, Manuel Rosales, is scheduled to follow the same procedure as well as comedian Benjamin Rausseo, better known as "Count Oilbird," who positions himself as an independent.

Most surveys identify Rosales as the candidate best placed to take on Chavez, though he still trails far behind the incumbent whose public opinion support stood at 55% when the campaign season officially got under way last August first.

Though some members of the opposition are uniting behind Rosales, leaders of Accion Democratica - one of the two big parties that dominated Venezuelan politics for decades prior to the advent of Chavez - are calling for a boycott of the December general election arguing the lack of electoral guarantees and transparency.