Vzla: How to thief an election

CARACAS - Mon, Jun. 07, 2004 - In a two-hour speech before a massive rally in downtown Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced Sunday that he was taking personal charge of the campaign leading to an August referendum on his mandate.

''We have just one team, and a single manager, whose name is Hugo Chávez,'' he told the cheering crowds. The objective of the campaign, he added, would be to obtain twice as many votes as those seeking his recall. The latter celebrated Saturday with their own huge march the official announcement Thursday that they had gathered enough signatures for the referendum.
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But Chávez also warned against underestimating ''the enemy,'' and called for five- or 10-person ''groups, or commandos'' to be formed in every town and barrio to ensure the registration of all pro-Chávez voters.

As expected, the organizational structure that unsuccessfully led the anti-referendum campaign -- the so-called Ayacucho Command -- has been relegated to a subordinate position in this new phase, which will be led by a newly created ''Maisanta Command,'' whose members have yet to be named.

Chavez would do well to take some lessons from his Democrat ideological brothers. They could teach him how to register the dead to vote; how to have the living and the dead vote early and often; how to have judges on hand to keep the polling places open way beyond the closing time; how to have poll workers on hand who can tell voters for whom to cast a ballot; how to have poll workers cast votes for the retarded and the senile; how to nullify the votes of the military....

Oh, there's a whole host of delightful things Chavez could learn from his brothers in this country. All he has to do is pick up a phone and call Al Gore. Give Kerry a buzz, too, he's preparing an army of lawyers to help him challenge every close result. Er, save your money, John F'fin; you'll lose by a landslide. In fact, you would be lucky if you manage to win your own home state of Massachusetts.