Capriles hopes to replace Chavez's state (Venezuela)

Bachelor candidate Henrique Capriles has received many online marriage proposals during his campaign

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded downtown Caracas to support opposition candidate Henrique Capriles in the biggest rally to date of his campaign to unseat cancer-stricken socialist President Hugo Chavez. 

The athletic 39-year-old walked and jogged 10 km on Sunday in the company of supporters to register his candidacy with electoral authorities, burnishing his image of physical fitness in contrast to the convalescing Chavez. Capriles hopes to replace Chavez's state-driven socialism with a Brazil-style balance between free enterprise and social programmes, and promises an end to the sectarian polarization of Chavez's 13-year rule.

"On October 7th we will decide not between two men but between two different ways of life," Capriles intoned from a stage set up before a plaza jam-packed with sympathizers before entering the election's council. "Today I'm the candidate because the people have decided, but on October 7th I'll be the next president of all Venezuelans," said Capriles, saying one million people had turned out.

During his speech he looked up to address a group of people in a nearby government office tower that has been used to house Venezuelans who lost homes in floods - a problem that plagued Chavez for months and spurred a major home-building campaign.

Chavez will register his own candidacy in a highly promoted ceremony on Monday (today), which is shaping up to be his biggest rally since he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011.

The government has offered few details about his actual condition since his diagnosis, and a relapse this year after
declaring himself "cancer free" spurred rumors that he may be confined to a wheel-chair or at death's door.

Chavez on Saturday said medical exams showed he was in good health. But Venezuelans believe a sudden turn for the worse in Chavez's health would upend both his campaign and the governance of a country so heavily dominated by his leadership.