Chavez party sweeps election
2005-12-06 09:37
Caracas - President Hugo Chavez's ruling party and his allies said on Monday they'd swept all 167 seats in Venezuela's legislative election giving the outspoken left-wing leader added power over the oil-rich nation.
The five main opposition parties boycotted Sunday's election and barely 25% of the 14m voters took part, election officials said.
But if confirmed, the results would give Chavez the power he needs to change the constitution so that the former paratroop colonel can stand for a new term in office.
National Assembly speaker Nicolas Maduro said Monday a new draft of the 1999 constitution will be prepared next year and will be submitted to a referendum in 2007.
William Lara, who heads Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement (FRM), said the ruling coalition had won all 167 seats, with the FRM securing 114 seats.
Lara insisted that after January 5, when the new legislature is inaugurated, Venezuela will still have a "multi-party national assembly".
Whole Venezuelan population not represented
Jorge Rodriguez, president of the National Electoral Council (NEC), said the low turnout was due to "torrential rains" that prevented voters from getting to polling stations.
But opposition parties that withdrew from the election said the low turnout undermined the legitimacy of the result.
Among those who withdrew were the Democratic Action Party and COPEI - which for decades alternated in power.
COPEI said it would go to court to try to get the election ruled invalid, though party secretary general Cesar Perez Vivas said there was little hope as "all the courts obey the opinions of the head-of-state".
Henry Ramos Allup, who leads Democratic Action, said that while the new legislature was legal, "it is not legitimate because it is a body in which the whole Venezuelan population is not represented."
In Washington, the State Department noted low voter turnout and a lack of confidence in the fairness of the poll, but deferred its final judgment until it sees reports from Organisation of American States and EU observers.
'Old parties already dead'
Opposition forces complained that the electronic voting machines used can record fingerprints, allowing authorities to know how a person voted, though election officials agreed to switch the feature off. They also charged that the electoral council is stacked with Chavez supporters.
The NEC chief said that "the voting went ahead with absolute normality".
But the opposition group Sumate alleged widespread irregularities. "We have received complaints from all parts of the country," said Alejandro Plaz, a spokesperson for the organisation.
"Venezuela is speaking with its silence," said Julio Borges, a prominent opposition member.
Venezuela's opposition for years has failed in repeated attempts to oust Chavez, a close ally of Cuba's communist leader Fidel Castro.
"The old parties are already dead but are refusing to die," Chavez said on Sunday after casting his ballot in Caracas.
Chavez earlier charged the opposition with seeking to lead Venezuela "down a violent path," and called its boycott part of a "subversive" US-inspired plot aimed at denying him a new six-year term in the December 2006 presidential election.