Venezuela Poll Shows Chavez Would Lose Vote, Nacional Reports
Caracas, May 15 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would lose a referendum on his presidency by 18 percentage points if a vote were held today, El Nacional reported, citing a poll by Consultores 21.
The April 1-15 poll of 1,500 Venezuelans found that 55 percent would vote for Chavez to leave office, while 37 percent would cast ballots for him to stay. Eight percent were undecided. The margin of error was 2.58 percent.
Sixty-four percent of those polled gave Chavez bad marks, while 36 percent said they thought he was doing a good job.
Venezuela's opposition has said it plans to seek a binding referendum on Chavez's presidency after Aug. 19 when the former paratrooper passes the halfway point of his term in office. Negotiations over holding the vote continue.
(EN 5/15 A5) (To see El Nacional's Web site, click on {NCNL