Venezuela Elections: Socialists Dealt A Blow As Opposition Wins Landslide

Venezuela’s opposition has won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections in the oil-rich nation, which is mired in economic turmoil and violent crime.

Candidates for the centre-right opposition seized a majority in the national assembly, with most of the results in, marking a major political shift in the country, which set out on a leftist path in 1999 under the late president Hugo Chavez and his project to make Venezuela a model of what he called “21^st century socialism”.

Five hours after polls closed the electoral commission said that the opposition had won 99 of the 167 seats in the national assembly. The socialist party won 46. Twenty-two additional seats were still undecided.

Fireworks burst in the sky above Caracas as election officials announced partial results of the vote, indicating the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) had broken the dominion the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has held on the legislature for 16 years.

“Venezuela wanted a change and today that change has begun,” said Jesus Torrealba, leader of the MUD coalition.

“The results are as we hoped. Venezuela has won. It’s irreversible,” tweeted Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate and one of the leading figures in the coalition.

President Nicolás Maduro said his government would “recognize these adverse results and accept them”.
However, he said the outcome of the election did not mean an end to the “Bolivarian revolution” he inherited from Chávez who died in 2013 from cancer.

“We have lost a battle today but now is when the fight for socialism begins,” he said in a late night address.

Change!!!