Venezuela's Chavez maintains lead over rival Capriles: poll

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela's Chavez maintains lead over rival Capriles: poll
Reuters – 2 hours 3 minutes ago.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez maintains a 15 percentage-point lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in the run-up to the October 7 election, pollster Datanalisis said on Monday.

Datanalisis' June poll showed 46.1 percent of voters backing Chavez and 30.8 percent supporting Capriles, while 23.1 percent were undecided or did not respond.

The lead was slightly narrower than the 15.9 percent advantage for Chavez in Datanalisis' May poll, but still within the margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.

Chavez, 57, remains popular in his 14th year in power due to his oil-financed welfare spending and his enduring emotional connection with the country's poor majority.

More:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-chavez-maintains-lead-over-rival-capriles-poll-144329615.html

[Lionessa]

1. He can't be ahead, he has no opponents, he is afterall a dictator.

/sarcasm

[naaman fletcher]

2. DU'ers have known about Datanalisis for years and years and years

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=40712&mesg_id=40988

[joshcryer]

3. Chavez campaign chief Jorge Rodriguez really hates Datanalisis and Consultores 21.

Which is odd because Datanalisis has Chavez ahead here (though unlike C21 has a very high number of undecideds). C21 puts it at a virtual tie, but you won't see that poll posted here.

Venezuela 'poll wars' rage as presidential race heats up
"They invent these polls so they can later cry fraud and return to their plans for destabilization," said Chavez campaign chief Jorge Rodriguez in reference to two of the most prominent public opinion firms, Datanalisis and Consultores 21. Their methodology, he said, was "an insult to anyone's intelligence".