Venezuelan parties back anti-Chavez candidate
                  
                  CARACAS (Reuters) -- Venezuela's traditional and dominant political
                  parties on Monday rallied behind an independent presidential candidate they
                  presented as the sole democratic alternative to front-runner and former coup
                  leader Hugo Chavez.

                  The center-right Copei party dumped its flagging presidential nominee,
                  ex-Miss Universe Irene Saez, 36, in favor of former state governor Henrique
                  Salas, saying he only could guarantee "a democratic change" in Sunday's
                  presidential election.

                  Copei's widely expected decision mirrored one taken last week by the
                  country's oldest and largest party, Democratic Action (AD), which also
                  switched its allegiance to market-friendly Salas after ditching its standard
                  bearer, 77-year-old Luis Alfaro.

                  The last-minute change of hearts by AD and Copei, and their efforts
                  apparently at all costs to prevent a man they call a dictator-in-waiting from
                  winning the presidency, were likely to boost Salas' candidacy, most political
                  analysts said.

                  Chavez, a radical populist who led a failed army coup attempt in 1992, has
                  kept a sizable lead in opinion polls. In the latest one, published on Friday, a
                  survey carried out on Nov 17-24, he held a 12 percentage point lead over
                  Salas, with 49.6 percent.

                  Salas, a 62-year-old Yale-educated businessman who seeks to project the
                  image of a competent manager, has always rejected the formal backing of
                  AD and Copei but not their tacit one.

                  "I want to be a unifying factor for all Venezuelans," Salas, the business
                  community favorite, said Monday, adding that he embodied "an alliance
                  against corruption and violence."

                  Copei secretary general Donald Ramirez, in announcing his party's decision,
                  said "the democratic vote must be centered on a guarantee of change in
                  peace and freedom, and that guarantee currently rests with the candidacy of
                  Henrique Salas."

                  In another unprecedented step, left-of-center AD, which has dominated
                  Venezuelan politics in 40 years of democratic rule, expelled party stalwart
                  Alfaro two days after dumping him as presidential candidate.

                  Some political analysts saw the sanction to Alfaro as another body blow to a
                  discredited ruling political class.

                  And Chavez, who campaigns on a clean government, anti- establishment
                  platform, mocked the traditional parties' last- ditch efforts to cling to power,
                  albeit indirectly, as the last spasms of a dying breed.

                  "It's earth-shattering, really the end of an era," commented local political
                  analyst Eric Ekvall, in reference to an election year in Venezuela that has
                  seen the emergence of independent candidates challenging a two-party
                  system, widely blamed for having squandered massive oil wealth and
                  practicing patronage.

                  Alfaro, who was AD secretary general until the party launched his
                  presidential candidacy six months ago, was generally known as the "caudillo"
                  (boss) for his back-room deal-making abilities and authoritarian style.

                  He showed again his mettle on Monday by reiterating he maintained his
                  candidacy, notwithstanding his expulsion, leaving electoral authorities to rule
                  on his fate as a candidate.

                   Copyright 1998 Reuters.