In Venezuela, on February 12, for the first time in the country's history, the opposition held primaries, Reuters reports . The presidential candidate from the opposition coalition was the governor of the state of Miranda, Henrique Capriles, who received 62 percent of the vote. His closest rival, Pablo Perez, received 30 percent of the vote.

After the results were announced, thousands of his supporters gathered outside Capriles' headquarters to celebrate his victory.

About three million people took part in voting in the primaries. The opposition took this turnout as a good sign in the hope that a large number of their supporters would also come to the presidential elections on October 7. At the same time, authorities claim that this is a rather insignificant figure for a country where 18 million people have the right to vote.

However, the presence of a single opposition candidate could strengthen its position, since for many years, due to internal disputes, it could not oppose the current President Hugo Chavez , who has led the country since 1999. Pablo Perez, having lost the primaries, immediately announced that he would support Capriles during the presidential race. Another opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, also spoke about this earlier.

Henrique Capriles focuses on the Brazilian “modern, leftist” economic model, which has improved the well-being of the population through public investment and the development of private entrepreneurship. The politician also promised that he would not waste time on ideological disputes, but would pay maximum attention to the needs of ordinary citizens: the fight against crime, unemployment and rising prices. In the area of foreign policy, Capriles is ready to move away from Chavez's ideologically motivated friendships with Iran, Belarus, Syria and other anti-American governments.

However, Chavez still enjoys the support of wide sections of the population thanks to government programs that allocate a lot of funds for state employees. State television showed half-empty polling stations from the opposition primaries. Chavez on Sunday, February 12, went to a parade in honor of the 198th anniversary of the battle in which Venezuela defeated Spanish troops.

For the first time, a single candidate will be nominated against Chavez