Venezuela’s Chavez Says Time to Prepare for 2010 Parliamentary Elections

Mérida, September 20th, 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – During a meeting on Saturday with the
ministers' council, made up of governors, ministers and vice-presidents,
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said winning two thirds of the National
Assembly in the elections for that entity next year was of "of high
revolutionary priority" in order to be able to fully continue the Bolivarian
Revolution.

The opposition
boycotted the last National Assembly elections in December 2005, with the
result that all 167 seats went to parties who at the time supported the Chavez
government.

Legislators
serve five-year terms, so elections are expected late next year. Chavez said that
in light of the opposition campaign to win such positions, it was urgent the
council members orient all their efforts towards the upcoming electoral battle.

"[The
opposition] is going to exploit the inefficiencies of the government to the
maximum and they're going to intensify the media battle from inside and outside
[the country] and the work of this government is to beat them yet again,
they're putting themselves in the barrios, trying to organise articulated
movements [there]," Chavez said.

"The opposition
will try to win a majority in the National Assembly by any means possible, we
know they're capable of anything, buying people, blackmail, and cheating."

Chavez warned
that one of the first things the opposition would do, were it to win a majority
in the assembly, would be to enact a law prohibiting the medical practice of
the Cuban doctors.

On Thursday
Chavez made some changes to the ministers' council to include six vice-presidents
to take charge of defence, politics, finance, production, social issues, and
territorial development. Chavez said the council should be a political entity
and not merely an administrative entity.