Campaigning begins for Venezuela presidential poll

CARACAS: Campaigning in Venuzuela got off to a muted start on Sunday ahead of a divisive presidential poll on May 20 which is being boycotted by the opposition and branded illegitimate by much of the international community.

President nicolas mad uro,a 55- year-old former bus driver, is running for another six-year mandate with no signiicant rivals and promising “prosperity” to a country living through one of its worst-ever crises and increasingly isolated.

“I’m not going to vote. It’s more of the same,” shrugged William Flores, an electrician, who no longer supports the leftist Chavist ideology of the late Hugo Chavez but who doesn’t support the opposition either.

“We are hoping for a miracle to lift us out of this desperate situation. I don’t see any other way.” This week, the International Monetary Fund described debt-ridden Venezuela’s economic collapse as one of the worst in modern history. The oil-rich nation has seen a “spectacular” drop its crude production, which halved over the past 18 months.

It has also been ravaged by hyperinlation, scarcities of basic food and medicine, and skyrocketing violence that has forced nearly a million Venezuelans to lee, with Maduro’s policies leaving the country ever more isolated on the international stage.

Even so, his reelection looks very likely. The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) is divided and has decided to boycott the vote after its leaders were bar red from running. they denounced the vote as a “fraudulent show” aimed at keeping Maduro in power.

- Two challengers — The only challengers to Maduro are two former Chavez supporters who have distanced themselves from the current government.

One is Henri Falcon, a 56-year old former mayor and state governor who will likely be Maduro’s main opponent, after ignoring MUD’S calls to join the boycott.

The other is little-known evangelical pastor Javier Bertucci, who runs Venezuela’s Maranatha Church.

But most pollsters see it as a two-horse race, with Delphos predicting Maduro will take 42 per cent to Falcon’s 30 per cent. Hinterlaces pollsters see the unpopular president taking 52 per cent of the vote against Falcon’s 22 per cent. With a solid grip on Venezuela’s institutions, Maduro has stepped up the distribution of subsidized foodstuffs and government vouchers in poor areas as well as speeding up voter registration among sympathizers as a form of social control, the opposition says.