Chavez still on top in Venezuela’s popularity vote

11-25-2008 | AP

The opposition made important gains in Venezuela’s local elections

Panama Star With more than 95 percent of votes counted, pro-Chavez candidates kept gubernatorial posts in 17 states, while the opposition won five states. Chavez trumpeted his party's domination of Sunday's vote as a sign to continue driving Venezuela toward "21st-century socialism."

"The people are telling me: 'Chavez continue down the same road,'" he said, hinting that he has not abandoned plans for constitutional changes that would expand his powers, push the economy toward socialism and allow him to run for re-election indefinitely.

Voters rejected the president's proposed overhaul of the constitution last year but Sunday's results clearly encouraged Chavez, who famously described U.S. President George W. Bush as the devil at the United Nations and has cultivated relations with U.S. antagonists in Cuba as well as Iran and more recently Russia.

Tibisay Lucena, president of Venezuela's election council, said the opposition won in the two most populous states — Miranda and Zulia — as well as Nueva Esparta, Carabobo and Tachira. Opposition candidate Antonio Ledezma defeated a close Chavez confidant to become the next mayor of Caracas, the South American nation's capital and largest city. "I'm delighted, and a bit surprised, that our candidates won in some of the most important states," said Delsa Perez, a 45-year-old housewife who voted for Ledezma because she was fed up with the capital's garbage-strewn and potholed streets.