Voting light, orderly in early hours of Venezuelan election
Voting appeared relatively light and lines moved smoothly in the early hours of Venezuela’s presidential election, marking a contrast from the hours-long wait for voting in Hugo Chavez’s last election in October, which saw record turnout.
On a picture-perfect spring day in the capital, Caracas, voters moved quickly through polling places, where they were choosing between Chavez’s hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, and his more conservative challenger, Henrique Capriles. Opinion polls showed Maduro leading heading into the election, but Capriles closing the gap.
Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Electoral Council, said at a news conference Sunday mornng that so far voter turnout has been lighter than in past elections.
Pablo Garcia, an economics instructor at the Central University of Venezuela, said he only waited a minute or two to vote Sunday in the South San Agustin barrio, a poor neighborhood in south Caracas. In October, he said, he waited five hours.
http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-voting-early-hours-venezuela-20130414,0,5265749.story
