MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela: Chavez maintains comfortable lead over main election rival

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has an advantage of 20 percentage points over Manuel Rosales, his main rival in December 3 elections, according to an opinion poll published on Tuesday.

Of those surveyed, 70 per cent said they planned to vote, and of those 58 per cent favoured Chavez and 41 per cent said they would vote for Rosales, said Saul Cabrera, chairman of the firm Consultores 21 that carried out the study.

Cabrera told foreign correspondents in Caracas that the limited time left before elections "is not enough" for the opposition candidate to turn the tables, unless something dramatic happens.

The poll was carried out in late October and early November and confirmed that Chavez is likely to get a new six-year mandate, even though many of his supporters reject policies like his "21st century socialism" and unlimited presidential re-election. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 per cent.

Cabrera said the election will likely be affected by Venezuelans' fears about electronic voting and fingerprint machines used to identify voters.

The Venezuelan opposition has long claimed the process that requires voters to submit their fingerprints for identification at the polls compromises the secrecy of the vote. Many fear that the information collected by the machines may later be used to trace the choices of individual voters.

Cabrera said some people fear they may lose government aid if their votes are traced, but he warned that the fingerprint machine is not so immediately open to violations.

"It is difficult to establish who voted for whom, but the problem is that those machines do not generate confidence among voters," Cabrera said.

The analyst said up to 8 per cent of the voters could be influenced by this fear. The opposition party contributed to that fear, since it harshly criticised the electoral system, but has now changed its strategy and is asking people to vote, Cabrera said.

He added that the latest poll shows that 54 per cent of those polled said they trust the country's electoral authority, while 45 per cent do not.