Fresh faces crowd candidate field to court young

Jesus Casanova has already earned a degree in journalism, is the owner of a South American swimming championship and last year was crowned Mister Venezuela in this beauty-obsessed nation. Now, at only 26, he wants to add a new title to his achievements: congressman.

Along with a cadre of athletes, hip-hop artists and TV personalities, Casanova was one of several minor celebrities, most of them political novices, who competed on Sunday in primaries to select candidates for the ruling United Socialist Party for December's legislative elections.

More than 1,100 candidates were on the ballots, from which 110 of the candidates for the National Assembly's 167 seats will emerge. The rest will be proposed by party leaders.

Voting hours were extended twice and President Nicolas Maduro boasted on television that turnout was double that of past primaries.

Analysts say Maduro is counting on the fresh faces to court young, uncommitted voters at a time when support for his administration is being eroded by widespread shortages and triple-digit inflation. His party has mandated that half its candidates be under age 30 to match the demographics of Venezuela's 19 million voters.

"The polls show it. People want to see young, new faces, new projects and fresh ideas," Casanova said as he wrapped up campaigning in the western city of Barinas.

With the opposition heavily favored to take control of congress for the first time since the late President Hugo Chavez was elected 16 years ago, Maduro's government is counting on its superior ground game to rally its base among the poor, especially in far-flung rural areas where the economic crisis is more severe but the opposition has little reach.

Pro-government candidates are also helped by near-complete socialist control of state institutions, a still-strong loyalty to the Chavez legacy and the opposition's scant access to television and radio.

In the last legislative election, in 2010, the ruling party failed to secure a majority of the popular vote but still retained nearly 60 percent of the legislature thanks to Venezuela's complicated electoral math.

The opposition is also courting the youth vote. A third of the candidates in its primaries last month were under age 40. If it should win control of congress, the opposition would likely push for a referendum to cut short Maduro's presidency before his term ends in 2019.

Maduro has surrounded himself with celebrity candidates before, to mixed effect. The celebrity candidates this time around are lower-wattage stars.

They include Pedro Blanco, a singer for "Dame pa' matala", a hip hop group popular in leftist circles, and pop star Antonio "El Pato" Alvarez, whose name is a slang reference to smoking a joint. There's also a young anchor from state TV.

(China Daily 06/30/2015 page11)