Opposition makes big gains against Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s party won the most seats in a critical legislative vote, but strong opposition gains weakened his iron grip on the National Assembly, first results showed yesterday.

Mr Chavez’s party won at least 94 of the 165 seats, while the opposition had at least 60, electoral officials said after a riveting overnight count. Two other seats went to the leftist Patria Para Todos (PPT, Homeland For Every one).

“We have to keep strengthening the (socialist) Revolution!! A new victory for the people. I congratulate everyone,” Mr Chavez wrote in his Twitter account after the vote.

But the firebrand leader, more used to riding a wave of popular support, failed to appear for devoted fans outside the presidential palace, and a planned victory party was eventually cancelled.

The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) had sought to win 110 seats, or two thirds of the congress, to keep pushing through reforms under Mr Chavez’s “socialist revolution.”

In a later Twitter message, Mr Chavez said it had been a “solid” and “sufficient” victory to keep pushing forward “socialism and democracy.”

But the results are set to shake up an assembly that the Latin American leftist champion is used to dominating, and the vote could be seen as an early referendum on Chavez’s performance two years before presidential elections in which he is eyeing a third, six-year term.

“It’s been demonstrated that the country has an alternative, formed thanks to the convergence of very different people,” said Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, spokesman for the largely conservative opposition coalition. The coalition overcame differences to take on Mr Chavez, marking a new strategy after boycotting the last vote in 2005.

The electoral council did not release full vote numbers but the opposition claimed its candidates had won 52 percent, but still failed to win a majority of seats due to recent, controversial changes in voting districts.

If the opposition claims are confirmed, then it will prove a blow to Mr Chavez, 56, who has always won comfortable majorities in the past.

In a sign of the times, the atmosphere in the ruling party headquarters was more sombre than victorious.

“It’s a long struggle, is a daily struggle, a battle that does not end and these MPs will be an important force to continue the struggle to build socialism,” ruling party leader, Aristobulo Isturiz, said.

A massive turnout of more than 66 per cent of some 17 million voters marked the tense elections, which saw an explosion of speculation in online social networks during a lengthy vote count.

“We’re happy about the new plurality for the National Assembly,” said smiling student Marihug Fernandez, celebrating in opposition headquarters in a Caracas hotel.

The mood was less upbeat outside the Miraflores presidential palace.

“I don’t agree that the opposition should be in the National Assembly because they want to destabilize the country,” said Chavez loyalist Jose Gonzalez.

In more than a decade of rule, Mr Chavez has nationalized public utilities, key industries and media, as well as launched health clinics and subsidized food programmes for the poor. He has also increased pressure on opposition groups and dissidents.

The united opposition, after failing to make inroads against Chavez in the past, kept its campaign focused on issues like Venezuela’s murder rate, one of the highest in the world, and record inflation.

“There is a desire on the part of the electorate to see a large political spectrum,” said political sciences professor Jose Vicente Carrasquero.