Venezuelan opposition candidate shot dead - lawmaker

An opposition candidate in Venezuela's upcoming legislative elections was shot dead during a public meeting on Wednesday, alongside the wife of a jailed opposition leader, an official said.

The December 6 elections are critical to President Nicolas Maduro's socialists remaining in power.

"Luis Manuel Diaz, local leader of the Democratic Action party in Altagracia de Orituco (Guarico state) has just been shot dead," the party's chairman Henry Ramos Allup said on Twitter.

Ramos Allup said Diaz was standing next to Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who is in prison for incitement to violence in 2014 anti government protests.

Polls show the coalition has a good chance of wresting the legislature from the ruling Socialists for the first time in 16 years, which has raised fears of conflict in a nation where politics often creates volatility on the ground.

There was no immediate confirmation of the incident in Altagracia from Venezuelan authorities.