Venezuelan opposition says soldiers reopen polling centres

dpa German Press Agency
December 3, 2006
Caracas

Opposition campaign leaders complained late Sunday that Venezuelan soldiers have forced some polling centres to reopen after the voting was officially declared over in Venezuela's presidential election. Eliseo Fermin, campaign chief for unified opposition candidate Manuel Rosales, said that soldiers in the states of Monagas, Sucre and Bolivar and in the capital, Caracas, showed up at polling centres that had already been shut.

The soldiers forced electoral authorities at gunpoint to reopen to allow people who had been bused in to vote.

Rosales is running what is considered a long-shot bid to defeat incumbent Hugo Chavez.

Fermin urged elections officials in polling stations to defy any illegitimate orders.

The opposition, which boycotted parliamentary elections in 2005, has expressed fears of fraud in Sunday's voting.

In past elections under the Chavez government, the opposition made fraud claims that were never substantiated, according to international monitoring organizations.

The elections were being observed by several delegations, including teams from the European Union, the Organization of American States, the private Carter Centre of former US president Jimmy Carter, and Mercosur, South America's leading trading bloc.

The head of the Mercosur delegation, Carlos Alvarez, on Sunday ruled out any possibility of electoral fraud.