Chavez rules out reelection failure

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he would not fail in the October presidential election.

Addressing a press conference in El Calvario Park in downtown Caracas, not far from the presidential headquarters of Palacio de Miraflores, Chavez said it is "absolutely impossible" that he would be defeated by the opposition, citing recent polls which placed him about 15 percentage points ahead of his rival Henrique Capriles.

A recent survey by Datanalisis pollster gave the Venezuelan president a 14.3 percent lead over Capriles.

"It's absolutely impossible for them to defeat us," he said.

The president said his victory was "irreversible" and that he has consolidated a 15 percent lead over his main rival whom he called as "the bourgeois candidate of the right."

With just a month to go before the presidential election, Chavez challenged Capriles by asking the National Electoral Council (CNE) for the results of the mock vote held last Sunday to familiarize Venezuelans with a new automated voting system.

Chavez also ruled out making any overtures towards the opposition once reelected, saying "our government will continue to build peace and will continue to be a revolutionary one. It's impossible to imagine I would invite a right-wing supporter into the cabinet."

Venezuela will hold presidential election on October 7. Voting stations will be set up in 24 states, 329 counties and 1,084 parishes. Some 18.9 million Venezuelans will be eligible to vote in the election.