Venezuela's right wing won a majority in the country's National Assembly Sunday, after years in opposition.
The right-wing coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) won 99 seats in Sunday's legislative election, giving them a simple majority for now, with a total seats still undecided.
The ruling socialist coalition, the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) held 46 seats, according to figures released by Venezuela's electoral authority, the CNE.
Nineteen regular and three Indigenous seats are yet to be announced.
The opposition however had already anticipated its victory before the results—an act that is illegal in Venezuela—and had already started celebrating.
The outcome represents the first time in over 15 years the right wing has won a majority in a legislative vote.
“We totally believe in the people, today has been a big demonstration of peace … we congratulate the people of Venezuela for this day where Venezuelans made their decision on their representatives to the National Assembly," said Tibisay Lucena, head of CNE.
According to Lucena, 96.03 percent of the vote has been counted, making the results “irreversible.”
While announcing the election results, Lucena thanked CNE officials and electoral observers for their work, describing the day's vote as “transparent and clean.”
“It's been a big day for democracy,” she said.
The participation rate was 74 percent. Comparably, the last legislative elections in 2010 saw a turnout of 66.45 percent.
Voting was peaceful nationwide, with no reports of major disturbances at electoral stations. Just under 100,000 officials presided over polling stations nationwide, including 130 international electoral monitors.
As many as 19 million registered voters were able to cast ballots in the election.
The GPP and its largest party the PSUV vowed to continue its progressive social and economic policies if it maintained a majority in the assembly. The right-wing opposition had said it would seek to oust President Nicolas Maduro if it won the AN.
Ahead of the election, Maduro warned there was a concerted and orchestrated campaign to de-legitimize the elections, while the opposition coalition has refused to commit to recognizing the results, leading to speculation that they may have planned to cry fraud if they failed to secure a majority.
The opposition has repeatedly accused the government of fraud in past elections, but has failed to make public any clear evidence of misconduct.
Ahead of Sunday's vote, the head of an election accompaniment mission representing the UNASUR regional bloc, Jose Luis Exeni, said Venezuela's voting system is secure.
Exeni told teleSUR the mission had more than 40 personnel positioned in voting stations across the country.
“We come here with important experience to accompany this (electoral) process,” he said during an interview Thursday.
The mission head said international media reports in the lead up to the vote suggesting the electoral system is vulnerable to abuse are misleading, describing the Venezuelan electoral process as “consistent,” and “very auditable.”
“Everyone should commit to respecting the results,” he said.
This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
"http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelas-Right-Wing-Achieves-Simple-Majority-20151206-0045.html".
No comments:
Post a Comment