Venezuela calls early election

CARACAS, Jan 24 (AFP): Venezuela will hold a presidential election by the end of April, the ruling Constituent Assembly said Tuesday, pulling forward a vote in which President Nicolas Maduro hopes to triumph over a divided opposition and win a second term.

The 55-year-old Maduro, a towering mustachioed former bus driver who was Hugo Chavez's handpicked successor, said he is ready to run if he receives the party's nomination.

"I am a humble worker, a humble man of the people," he told reporters before taking the stage at a rally in Caracas.

"If the United Socialist Party of Venezuela... believes that I should be the presidential candidate... I'm at your service."

It is the closest that Maduro-who assumed power in April 2013 after Chavez died in office from cancer-has come to declaring his candidacy outright.

He has yet to formally be nominated by his party, but it seems a foregone conclusion.

Top party official Diosdado Cabello confirmed to the Assembly that Maduro would be the party's sole candidate.