With
the vast majority of votes from Sunday's election counted, Chavez's socialist
party won at least 96 of the 165 seats in the National Assembly, while the
opposition coalition won at least 61 seats, National Electoral Council
president Tibisay Lucena said early Monday. The remaining eight seats either
went to a small splinter party or had not yet been determined, she said.
Chavez
hailed it as a "solid victory" in an online posting on Twitter, but
he fell short of his goal of keeping the two-thirds majority that has allowed
his allies to push through controversial changes unopposed. Until now,
pro-Chavez lawmakers have been able to rewrite laws unopposed and unilaterally
appoint officials, including Supreme Court justices and members of the
electoral council.
A crowd of government supporters who had gathered
outside the presidential palace showed mixed emotions when Lucena announced the
results. Some showed disappointment by holding their heads in their hands while
others thrust their fists in the air, declared the outcome a triumph.
Earlier,
Chavez backers drove through downtown Caracas celebrating, waving party flags
and honking horns. Powerful fireworks exploded above the streets, echoing
throughout much of the capital.
Opposition leaders celebrated at the
coalition's headquarters in Caracas, where they hugged and kissed each other
amid smiling supporters.
In the western state of Zulia, where the
opposition won 12 of the 15 posts up for grabs, Gov. Pablo Perez attributed the
opposition's gains to the coalition's decision to field a single candidate for
each of the 165 seats being contested.
"We showed Venezuela that we
can advance if we're united," Perez said.
Miguel Tinker Salas, a
professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, said the outcome could
prompt Chavez to concentrate on resolving pressing domestic problems, which
include rampant violent crime, a lingering economic recession and Latin
America's highest rate of inflation.
"It might force him to be more
pragmatic and increasingly more focused on internal matters, especially now
that he's got his eye looking toward 2012," when he faces re-election,
Tinker Salas said.
Still, the opposition lacks a strong presence in many of
the rural states where Chavez remains most popular, making it more difficult
for government foes to win strong backing for a presidential candidate within
two years, Tinker Salas said.
Polls suggest Chavez remains the most popular
politician in Venezuela, yet surveys also have shown a decline in his
popularity in the past two years as disenchantment has grown over the nation's
persisting domestic problems.
The opposition, which boycotted the last
legislative elections in 2005, dramatically increased its representation beyond
the dozen or so lawmakers who defected from Chavez's camp in the current
National Assembly.
The opposition's goal was to win a majority of the
assembly's seats. Even though they fell short, they will be able to put some
constraints on Chavez's lawmaking power because they prevented his allies from
winning a two-thirds majority.
"There's going to be some paralysis in
the assembly because many decisions require a two-thirds majority, it's going
to put some brakes on Chavez's project," said Gregory Wilpert, author of
the book "Changing Venezuela By Taking Power." "For the
opposition it's a mixed bag, but it's a step forward in the sense that they've
committed themselves to playing the democratic game," Wilpert added,
noting the opposition attempted — and failed — to oust Chavez through a 2002
coup. Then opponents boycotted the last congressional vote in 2005, allowing
Chavistas to dominate the assembly.
Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, leader of the
opposition coalition, criticized an election law passed by Chavez's allies that
redrew some legislative districts and gave greater weight to votes in rural
areas, where the president remains more popular. Opposition candidates agreed
to participate in the elections and respect the results as long as the vote
count was transparent.
Since he was first elected in 1998, Chavez has
fashioned himself as a revolutionary-turned-president, carrying on the legacy
of his mentor Fidel Castro, with a nationalist vision and a deep-seated
antagonism toward the US
government. He has largely funded his government
with Venezuela's ample oil wealth, touting social programs targeted to his
support base.
During the campaign, Chavez had portrayed the vote as a
choice between his "Bolivarian Revolution" and opposition politicians
he accuses of serving the interests of the wealthy and his adversaries in the
US government.
