Posted on 11/19/2006 4:53:48 PM PST by StJacques
Rosales says that he is tied with Chavez in the polls Caracas. - The opposition candidate Manuel Rosales assured today that the polls reflect a technical tie between his candidacy and that of President Hugo Chavez. "The most important thing in a poll, and it's what the experts indicate, translates itself in the tendencies" and "at this moment they reflect what can be defined as a technical tie, (because) I don't know if he (Chavez) is a few points ahead or if I am," Rosales said in an interview with a German television station replayed by the Globovision network, as reviewed by the EFE [news agency]. "The important thing is that he is coming down and I am going up," [Rosales] stressed. Without naming Chavez at any time, Rosales sustained that the President has been "playing alone, speaking alone, and deciding alone" over almost the last eight years, while he [Rosales] could only be found on the campaign for "two months and a week," in spite of which, he repeated, "the tendencies are very clear in the polls." The opposition candidate admitted that he began the race for the December 3rd presidential elections "with a very low point total," but that now he is polling with a "great response from the people" though he did not cite proportionate numbers. Regarding the electoral process and at the suggestion that conditions could be created for a possible fraud in Chavez's favor, Rosales said that the voter's list "has problems" and lamented that they could not "purify it completely" and that the automated system of casting votes and the scrutinizing of voters "is dangerous."1 Even though on other occasions he has ruled out that the voter digital fingerprint registration machines could be used for fraud, he pointed out that the government will use them "to intimidate, to provoke fear among public employees, [and] among those who have whatever other relationship with the government."2 The little more than 16 million Venezuelans called to vote must pass by these machines before casting their ballot, which seek to avoid the possibility that an elector can vote on more than one occasion, according to the way electoral authorities have argued it. Rosales also accused public officeholders of having at their service "all the structure of power" and of using it "in a shameless and obscene manner" to the benefit of Chavez's candidacy, because "we are, we can say, [being outspent] 22 to 1" in advertising, he added. In spite of that, he said that he will recognize the result "if the secret ballot is respected, if the popular will is respected," the EFE divulged. "I am sure that the result is going to be favorable to us" and that "what we are not going to permit nor accept is that they repeat the cheating or manipulation" and that they will confront them "it costs what it costs," he added. His victory, he predicted, must be in part due to the "disaster of government of a President with violent speech, of disunion" and because "now there are more poor than before, more unemployed than before." When (Chavez) arrived in government (in 1999) a barrel of oil cost (was sold at) 12 dollars, today it is at 70 dollars on average and Venezuela lives in worse conditions," he pointed out. Moreover, he said that the Venezuelan voters will choose within two weeks between "democracy and liberty or a system like that of Cuba, of backwardness and underdevelopment. They are going to choose between alternating Presidents (...) or a country where there is just one President and you have to do what he and Fidel Castro say, a societal model where everything depends upon the government and the state." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We cannot permit that by filthiness or by cheating that they violate and evade a popular will expressed in votes. That he wins who has the votes, but that he wins clean, without cheating, that he wins by clear rules, that he wins the way he is supposed to win," he indicated.
Translator's Notes:
1 The entire matter of the "scrutiny" of voters in the Venezuelan election has been of great interest, both in Venezuela and abroad. There is an electronic fingerprint identifying machine known as a captahuella which simultaneously verifies and records the fingerprint of voters with a time stamp at the moment their vote is cast. Since votes are also time-stamped this creates the possibility of a non-secret ballot given that the two time stamp lists could be correlated, and that Chavez opponents could face potential retaliation.
2 The issue of pressures placed upon civil and state employees, the military, and others by the Chavez regime is another very big issue in this campaign. See this translated article for more.
He will just steal the election, what does he have to worry about? The photos of course make it harder in world public opinion, but somehow I think he will find a way. And Jimmah will enable. Assuming Chavez cheats, he will find himself up against a lot of angry Venezuelans and I hope they will get rid of him in their own way as they see fit.
Just what the doctor ordered huh?
if hugo loses, does the cheap heating oil for the northeast get cut off?
ABSOLUTELY!!
Nancee
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