Chavismo consolidated its power in Venezuela this Sunday by winning in 20 of the 23 states of the country, in addition to the federal district of Caracas. The results of the rest of the cities are missing. 41.8% of the census voted in the elections. After knowing the results, President Nicolás Maduro asked for respect and celebrated the victory of his party.
Finally, he showed his hope of working in the “dialogue” with the opponents who won in Zulia, Nueva Esparta and Cojedes.
The opposition has paid dearly for its lack of unity – which, if it had overcome it, could have come close to victory in three other states. They were the first elections after several years without the opposition boycott; But after so long calling for abstention, mistrust has been sown in a good part of the citizenry.
On this occasion there has also been an Electoral Observation Mission of the European Union.
In the capital, the former Interior Minister Carmen Meléndez (PSUV) won, with 58.93% of the votes counted, ahead of the opposition Antonio Ecarri (Alianza Lapiz), who obtained 15.54% of the votes, while in Third place was also anti-Chavista Tomás Guanipa, who appeared with the initials of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD).
With those acronyms, they won the 2015 parliamentary elections, the biggest opposition victory in recent years. That is another of the readings that the day leaves, the magnetism of those acronyms has lost its effect.
Chavismo won in the Anzoátegui states, with Luis José Marcano; Apure, with Germán Piñate; Apure, with Karina Carpio; Bolívar, with Ángel Marcano; Carabobo, with Rafael Lacava; Falcón, with Víctor Clark; Guárico, with José Manuel Vásquez; Lara, with Adolfo Pereira; Mérida, with Jehyson Guzmán; Miranda, with Héctor Rodríguez, as well as Monagas, with Ernesto Luna.
Also in Portuguesa (Antonio Cedeño), Sucre (Gilberto Amilcar Pinto), Trujillo (Gerardo Márquez), Yaracuy (Julio Cesar León Heredia), Amazonas (Miguel Rodríguez), Delta Amacuro (Lizeta Hernández) and La Guaira (Jose Alejandro Terán).
Barinas, the home state of Hugo Chávez, is one of the regions yet to be decided.
There, the ruling party Argenis Chávez – Hugo Chávez’s brother – has received 93,097 votes so far, which represents 37.05%, while Freddy Superlano (Democratic Unity Table, MUD), has 92,424 votes, 36.79% of the total.
In the case of Táchira, Freddy Bernal (PSUV) has received 136,779 votes so far, while the current governor, Laidy Gómez (Democratic Action), has 133,925 votes.
The opposition, on the other hand, has won in Cojedes, a traditional Chavista stronghold where Jose Alberto Galíndez, of the MUD, won, as well as Nueva Esparta, where Morel Rodríguez Ávila of the emerging Fuerza Vecinal party won.
In Zulia, the most populated state in the country, he achieved his most impressive victory, since the veteran Manuel Rosales, of the MUD, will be the next governor.
If the official victory is confirmed in the states still in dispute, Chavismo improves those obtained in 2017, when it won in 18 states and Caracas.
Maduro asks for respect for the results
After knowing the results, President Nicolás Maduro requested respect for the results of the elections and celebrated the victory of his party.
“My call to everyone, winners and non-winners, is to respect the results, it is to political dialogue, it is to national reunification,” Maduro said from the Miraflores presidential palace.
In his opinion, the victory of the PSUV has been possible because of the “perseverance” and “rectitude” of the militancy in their work.
Finally, he showed his hope of working hand in hand with “dialogue” with the opponents who won in Zulia, Nueva Esparta and Cojedes.
For his part, the number two of Chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, accompanied that desire and ratified his certainty that the results will be replicated in the mayoralties.
“Here it is, for all of Venezuela, this is the political map of our country,” said Cabello, showing a map of his nation dyed red with the exception of the three states won by the anti-Chavistas and affirmed that this result “guarantees peace and the tranquility”.
Election day passed with various incidents that were minimized by the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Pedro Calzadilla.
After his appearance in the middle of the day, a man was murdered in the Zulia municipality of San Francisco when he was queuing to vote, a witness informed Efe, while the authorities disassociated the event from the elections.
When reading the results, at the stroke of midnight, Calzadilla also made no mention of the case.
es.euronews.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.