Election authorities set the vote for Oct. 7 — day of the patron saint of Chavez’s birthplace Sabaneta, and also the birthday of a leading opposition leader — meaning the South American OPEC member is in for a noisy year’s politicking.
“I give the order to prepare for the battle and the great victory on Oct. 7,” Chavez said, after again reassuring supporters he would soon be fit from cancer treatment.
The 57-year-old Chavez’s cancer diagnostic and ongoing chemotherapy treatment have given him a small sympathy bounce in opinion polls, where his approval remains above 50 percent,
Yet ill health has also hurt his aura of invincibility.
The voluble socialist leader has led Venezuela since 1999, remolding the economy along statist lines and turning himself into one of the world’s most vocal US critics. But he faces an opposition movement more united than ever and set to rally round a unity candidate after a primary election in February.
