Caracas – Foul-mouthed and raunchy Venezuelan comedian Benjamin Rausseo, known as the “Oilbird Count,” on Sunday formally kicked off his presidential campaign for the December election with what local media said was the largest popular support among any of the opposition candidates challenging President Hugo Chavez.
Rausseo launched his campaign at the Musipan Kingdom, a themepark he owns that is set up along the lines of Disney World on Margarita island.
The humorist is presenting himself to voters at a centrist option, quite a distance – politically – from both the Socialist Chavez and the other opposition candidates.
“We’re not center-left, we’re not center-right, we’re center-sirloin,” he said, in his typical spoofing style.
On Dec. 3, some 16 million Venezuelans will be able to go to the polls to elect the president who will govern the country from 2007-13.
Rausseo’s candidacy has increased the fragmentation of the opposition forces, which are divided among those who want to participate in the election – in which Chavez, who is running for reelection, is quite heavily favored – and those who want to boycott it altogether.
Initial media surveys on Sunday gave Rausseo an advantage over the dozen or so other opposition candidates, a result that now alters the previous election calculations and calls into question the so-called “primary” elections by one portion of the opposition – a faction to which Rausseo does not belong – to decide upon a single candidate, a vote that is scheduled for Aug. 13.
Local media said that Rausseo received the support of 28 percent of the opposition supporters, far higher than any other candidate.
“Today we’re taking the first step toward the great final battle of Dec. 3, where Venezuelans will be able to choose between authoritarianism and democracy, between secure employment and handouts, between love and hate,” Rausseo said on Sunday.
“A lot of road must still be traveled from Musipan to Miraflores (the presidential palace), but someone had to start this friendly campaign which will travel throughout Venezuela with a message of happiness and hope,” he added.
The 45-year-old comedian studied law in school and, before becoming a humorist more than 20 years ago, he worked as a taxi driver, waiter and mechanic, as well as at several other jobs.
Voter surveys taken in July indicated that Chavez had the support of about 55 percent of the voters – although his campaign chiefs said at the time that about 70 percent of the electorate favored him – while his dozen or so opposition rivals had a total of no more than 20 percent.
That 20 percent now could rise, however, if the next formally conducted surveys confirm the apparent “earthquake” caused last month by the raunchy opposition comedian when he said that he, too, was a “serious” candidate for president.
The “Oilbird Count” has gained popularity and name recognition during his comedic career for the sexual allusions and satirical foul-mouthed delivery he uses in his performances.
Much ink has been used over the past weeks analyzing his prospective entry into the race, but so far no conclusion has been reached among election watchers as to whether Rausseo is truly a serious contender or some sort of camouflaged government campaign tactic to further fragment the anti-Chavez forces.
On July 28, Rausseo went to the National Election Council, or CNE, to find out what the requirements were to register as a presidential candidate for the election.
He said they told him that “they have every desire to help” him fulfill the requirements to legally register his recently created Piedra (stone) party and then register his candidacy.
He has named his female campaign team the “Breast Command,” and his campaign slogan is “Vota Piedra” (Vote stone) but the intentional underlying joke is that in Spanish the phrase sounds identical to “Bota Piedra” (Throw a stone).
Chavez’s campaign chief, Francisco Ameliach, said late last month that the comedian “is the most serious candidate that the opposition has presented so far … (and that) he has said some truly serious things that no other opposition candidate has mentioned.”
“For example, he says that there is no way to get access to the government other than through voting and that people must participate in the elections,” and he says that if he loses “you have to accept defeat because that is the democratic way,” Ameliach said.
The opposition has a tough road to travel, given that there are so many presidential hopefuls among that minority, not to mention the fact that there is a sector among the opposition that rejects voting altogether.
Prior to Rausseo’s entry into the race, the governor of oil-rich Zulia state, Manuel Rosales, had been the favorite among the dozen opposition candidates to win the primary.
Voter surveys by Datanalisis and others agree that just 33 percent or so of the country’s 16 million voters say they will participate in the primary. “Of that percentage, about 12 percent, admit that they are linked to Chavism,” said Datanalisis head Luis Vicente Leon.
Regarding Rausseo, Leon said that his is an “outsider” protest candidacy against Chavez, given that the opposition “has been incapable of connecting with the public.”
