Chavez, Sunday: "This is a truly historic day ... there aren't precedents in the political history of Venezuela for an event such as this"

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): President Hugo Chavez lauded his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) as the rank and file were urged to vote in internal elections as part of the process of selecting candidates to run in the regional elections which are scheduled for November 23. Chavez' regular Sunday broadcast, Alo Presidente was off the air again, though that didn't mean he was entirely absent from the box in the corner.

"This is a truly historic day," he declared outside a school where he'd cast his vote in 23 de Enero, just up the road from Miraflores, presidential palace. "There aren't precedents in the political history of Venezuela for an event such as this," he said.

Given that the PSUV didn't formally get off the ground as a political party until earlier this year, it was indeed a first outing for the rank and file to have their say. In all, a little over 5.722 million party members were eligible to vote, using 8,288 voting tables at 3,493 balloting centers across the country. Officials said 4,888 people put themselves forward as potential candidates for 353 posts including 23 state governors, 328 municipal mayors and two other elected posts. It remains to be seen how much attention the party leadership gives to Sunday's vote.

Chavez has already nominated several candidates of his own choice for key posts. Among these is outgoing Libertador Municipal Mayor Freddy Bernal, whom Chavez "fingered" for state governor of Vargas several days before the internal election. Bernal is reported to have said it could take 20 years to sort out Caracas' problems. Bernal should know. A great deal of the capital's headaches including poverty, poor housing, high crime, and an endless stream of trash are daily features of life in Libertador. He may be hoping for an easier life in Vargas, where the chief challenge is restoration after a massive mudslide destroyed whole towns and thousands of homes, killing at least 30,000 people in 1999.

Chavez took the opportunity to announce that he was keeping on Information and Communications Minister Andres Izarra. Reports last week said that Izarra's resignation after the debacle prompted by his ordering state television channel VTV to charge for material retransmitted by other stations had been quietly accepted. This, it turned out, was not so; Chavez had kind words for his errant minister. "This lad has done great work," the president declared. "A little time ago, we made a mistake. I didn't commit it, but I also assume it."

For his part, Izarra claimed the PSUV was being strengthened by the support of the people. Chavez' remarks were taken as a sign that the idea of VTV charging fees to other channels might perhaps not be quite as dead as at first it seemed.