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Venezuelans Line Up to Vote on Chavez

Posted on: Sunday, 15 August 2004, 06:00 CDT

CARACAS, Venezuela - Summoned by bugle calls and the detonations of huge firecrackers, Venezuelans turned out in unprecedented numbers Sunday to vote on whether to force leftist President Hugo Chavez from office.

Some lines at polling places extended for 1.25 miles, stunning even veteran election monitors. Election officials decided to keep polls open four hours longer than scheduled, until 8 p.m. EDT, and assured voters that polling stations would be kept open until everyone in line casts their ballots, possibly extending the voting period into Monday.

"This is the largest turnout I have ever seen," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who monitored the vote. "There are thousands of people in line, waiting patiently and without any disturbance."

The first-ever recall vote for a president in Venezuela's history is aimed at putting a lid on years of often violent political unrest and came after a lengthy and complicated process of mass signings of petitions.

Venezuelans tend to love or hate Chavez, a 50-year-old former paratroop commander, with sentiment drawn along class lines. Activists from both sides urged voters to the polls, but they needed little pushing.

Lines snaked for blocks in upscale neighborhoods, where suspicion is high that Chavez plans a Cuba-style dictatorship, and in the slums, where support for his "revolution for the poor" is fervent. A seven-hour wait to vote was common.

Lula Golding, 54-year-old Chavez opponent, awoke to earsplitting fireworks in Caracas' trendy Chacao district at 3 a.m., then voted when polls opened three hours later.

"The hate that the president has sown among Venezuelans is unacceptable," said Golding, who accused Chavez of dividing Venezuela along class lines.

Across the capital in the La Pastora slum of brick shanties, thousands of Chavez supporters rose before dawn to "reveille" bugle calls from loudspeakers. Hours later, many were still calmly waiting to vote under a radiant Caribbean sun.

Miguel Rodriguez, a 41-year-old bus driver, helped the get-out-the-vote effort by transporting Chavez supporters to voting centers.

"Chavez is working hard to improve life for the impoverished, giving them opportunities that past governments never even considered," Rodriguez said.

Chavez has directed spending from government coffers, beefed up by huge oil revenues, to pay for literacy programs, scholarships and free medical care for Venezuela's majority poor. Thousands of Cuban doctors, dentists and nurses, sent by Chavez's friend Cuban President Fidel Castro, work in poor barrios across this South American nation.

Chavez has often lashed out at the rich, even referring to them as "devils."

At a polling station in the wealthy Palos Grandes district, one man urged voters who were waiting in line for hours to be patient, eliciting a burst of applause.

"Don't despair," shouted Pablo Ramirez. "You may be tired of waiting, but they are going to be tired of counting all your votes. We got as far a forcing the referendum, now we have to win it."

Uncertainty about the future of the world's fifth-largest oil exporter has contributed to record high oil prices, which have reached more than $46 a barrel.

Jorge Rodriguez, a director of the elections council, said voter participation could reach a record high. Chavez called on the opposition to accept the results, and pledged that he would also do so.

"We are waiting calmly and are preparing mentally, and with a lot of joy, to accept the result, no matter what the result will be," Chavez said after casting his ballot in a poor Caracas neighborhood.

Venezuelans could either vote "no" to allow Chavez to serve out the remainder of his six-year term, which began in 2000, or "yes" to recall him. For Chavez to lose, more must vote against him than the nearly 3.8 million who voted for him in the 2000 presidential elections, and there must also be more "yes" votes than "no" votes.

A controversy erupted briefly Sunday over a recorded message purporting to announce that Chavez had lost the referendum. The message was recorded on a compact disc that surfaced as voting proceeded. Francisco Carrasquero, president of the National Elections Council, called a news conference to demand an investigation.

But the CD was apparently only a recording of a satirical radio show that had been broadcast weeks earlier.

"How is it possible that they take a recording of a comedy program and denounce it in the National Elections Council," Andres Velasquez, an opposition leader, told a news conference. "This smells like (an attempt to) provoke us," Velasquez said.

If Chavez loses, he would immediately step down and Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel would take over until an election is held within 30 days. Chavez has said he plans to run in the new election if he is ousted in the referendum.

Exit polls were banned. Results were not expected until several hours after polls close.

The referendum comes after a two-year drive to oust Chavez, which included a short-lived 2002 coup, a devastating two-month strike and political riots last March that claimed a dozen lives.

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