OFFICIAL results: 1.25 a.m. (12.55 a.m. Eastern)
- Metropolitan Caracas: United Opposition - Antonio Ledesma 52.45%
- Caracas Libertador: PSUV - Jorge Rodriguez 53.05%
- Anzoategui: PSUV - Tarek William Saab 55.06%
- Apure: PSUV- Jesus Aguilarte 56.48%
- Aragua: PSUV - Rafael Isea 58.56%
- Barinas: PSUV - Adan Chavez 49.63%
- Bolivar: PSUV - Francisco Rangel Gomez 46.97%
- Carabobo: currently claimed by Henrique Salas Feo -- disputed!
- Cojedes: PSUV - Teodoro Bolivar (no figures released yet)
- Falcon: PSUV - Stela Marina Lugo (no figures released yet)
- Guarico: PSUV - Willian Lara 52.08%
- Lara: PSUV - Henry Falcon 73,15%
- Merida: PSUV- Marcos Diaz 54.62%
- Miranda: United Opposition - Henrique Capriles Radonsky 52.56 %
- Monagas: PSUV - Jose Gregorio Briceno 64.79%
- Nueva Esparta: United Opposition - Morel Rodriguez 57%
- Portuguesa: PSUV - Wilmar Castro Soteldo 57%
- Sucre: PSUV - Enrique Maestre 56.08%
- Tachira: United Opposition - Cesar Perez Vivas 50%
- Trujillo: PSUV - Hugo Cesar Cabezas 59.47%
- Vargas: PSUV - Jorge Luis Garcia Carneiro 61.56%
- Yaracuy: Julio Cesar Leon Heredia 57.46%
- Zulia: United Opposition - Pablo Perez Alvarez 53.59%
11.50 p.m. -- 95.57% of the results are ready to be announced!
OFFICIAL: 65.45% participation in November 23 elections!
PLEASE NOTE: that details are UNOFFICIAL until they are officially CONFIRMED by the CNE and subject to change at any time!
11.40 p.m. National Election Council (CNE) still wrangling figures on Barinas State Governorship. Looks like Chavez' brother Adan has lot the battle but PODEMOS challenger Julio Cesar Reyes is confidently biding his time for the final result.
11.30 p.m. Claimed wins (unannounced) for the opposition in:
Zulia -- Governor Pablo Perez; Mayoralties: Maracaibo, Cabina and San Francisco
Nueva Esparta -- Governor Morel Rodriguez
Carabobo -- Governor Enrique Salas Feo; Mayoralty: Naguanagua
Sucre -- Governor Eduardo Morales Gil; Mayoralty: Cumana, Carupano
Miranda -- Governor Enrique Capriles; Mayoralty: Chacao, Baruta, Hatillo, Guaicaipuro (Los Teques), La Salias and Acevedo
Guarico -- Governor Lennys Manuitt
11.10 p.m. Miami-based Venezuela-exiled journalist Orlando Urdaneta says he has been told by Caracas TAL CUAL editor & publisher Teodoro Petkoff that the Chavez opposition has only gained 4 states ... Merida, Tachira, Miranda and Zulia.
11.04 p.m. Former Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Nations, Milos Alcalay -- closely identified with the anti-Chavez opposition -- is highly critical of the automized electoral process which has cost the government $ millions to implement. Alcalay says it is "totally ridiculous and wholly embarrassing for the national of Venezuela to have a computerized system that takes such a long time to produce the election results. He fears that manipulations in the final figures may be taking place ... "it would NOT be altogether impossible in the current political climate." he says.
10.53 p.m. President Hugo Chavez Frias scheduled to appear on a "cadena" (mandatory political broadcast) on all terrestial TV and radio channels in Venezuela as soon as the election results are officially released.
10.50 p.m. Carlos Ocaris seen pulling ahead in the race to win the Caracas-Sucre municipality for the opposition defeating PSUV's Jesse Chacon.
10.39 p.m. PSUV vice president Alberto Muller Rojas has told VTV that "there is no doubt that all the exit polls indicate that we have swept the entire nation with victories."
10.20 p.m. National Electoral Council (CNE) reports that 91% of the votes have been transmitted from poll stations across the nation to CNE HQ in Caracas. Further (unofficial) reports that 72% of the votes have been tallied so far!
10.15 p.m. Reports of fireworks lighting up the sky over El Hatillo (southern suburb of Caracas) as early results filter out to waiting crowds.
10.09 p.m. Unidentified motorcycle gunmen opened fire on a poll station in Puerto La Cruz; no casualties reported.
9.57 p.m. Venezuela First (VdP) gubernatorial candidate, Roberto Smith complains to the media that polling stations around Vargas State (on Venezuela's Caribbean Litoral coast) have been re-opened and that specially chartered buses have been unloading many (presumably PSUV) voters in a last ditch effort to boost PSUV's voting figures.
9.54 p.m. Former CNE director Ezquiel Zamora has congratulated those who voted today and, in a televised press conference, asks that Plan Republica military commanders should comply with their constitutional duties i.e to be guardians of democracy. He also urges the CNE itself "to remeber that this is NOT a presidential election and that it's fuctions must be local and regional."
9.50 p.m. Visibly hostile PSUV commandos said that they will continue to patrol the streets and will NOT quit until the last register voter has voted.
9.40 p.m. Patria Para Todos (PPT) secretary Jose Albornoz alleges that former Communications & Information (MinCI) Minister Willian Lara has committed a series of electoral violations but that "even cheating can't deny the will of the people of Guarico State!"
9.30 p.m. National Electoral Council (CNE) president Tibisay Lucena expected to make a first announcement of results within minutes. Official figures show abstention rate at 40%. Still unannounced figures for participation at today's election said to show a voter majority in favor of opposition candidates at local and regional levels across the nation.
9.25 p.m. National Electoral Council director in southwestern Merida State has announced that voting has concluded and that officials are now completing the tally of votes which will be reported to CNE president Tibisay Lucena in Caracas for an official nnouncement!
9.00 p.m. Looks like an opposition gain in Tachira where people are already celebrating in the streets of San Cristobal where presumptive governor-elect Cesar Perez Vivas has asked that everyone to gather in the main square and for electoral witness to stay in place ready for a final announcement expected shortly!
8.00 p.m. Opposition candidates are expected to win 9 key governorships in first exit surveys just released! Results are still unofficial since election authorities have decreed some poll stations are to remain open until as late as 10.00 p.m. with motorized United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) activists out whipping up last minute support to try to win marginal municipal seats across the country.
- The governorships are Nueva Esparta, Zulia, Tachira, Merida, Guarico, Miranda, Barinas, Carabobo, and Metropolitan Caracas plus Sucre municipality. Yaracuy governorship to PSUV's Julio Leon Heredia.
Zulia State has already fallen to the opposition and Manuel Rosalez is about to become the elected Mayor of Maracaibo despite President Hugo Chavez' best efforts to spoil his candidacy.
Metropolitan Caracas Mayoralty is still up for grabs but it is increasingly likely that Antonio Ledezma will win over PSUV's Aristobulo Isturiz. If the position holds through the night and is firmed up in the final results it will be a tremendous setback for President Hugo Chavez Frias to lose his capital stronghold.
Bolivar State exit polls show incumbent Governor Francisco Rangel Gomez just a hair's breadth (39%) away from losing control of the resource-rich eastern State to challenger Andres Velasquez (40%) with Antonio Rojas trailing at 21%.
A pro-government spokesperson told VHeadline less than a hour ago that he views the outcome of todays elections as being "positive" ... but it's a sentiment echoed exactly across the aisle with an opposition spokesperson claiming that "important advances have been made that diminish President Hugo Chavez hold on Venezuela!"
PODEMOS ("We Can") is claiming that its candidates and the electorate in Sucre, Guarico, Vargas and Bolivar States have been "terrorized" while an estimated 35% of the computerized voting machines in Guarico were daid to have been showing "malfunctions."
PSUV's Jorge Rodriguez was forced to apologize for wearing a baseball cap bearing his PSUV party's logo when he went o vote this morning and President Hugo Chavez turned up to vote wearing his traditional red shirt (synonymous with his political party PSUV)!
University students in Caracas are claiming success saying that "a (politically) multi-colored Venezuela will wake up tomorrow to begin building a better Venezuela!"
As of 6:30 p.m. Sunday no less than 106 persons had been arrested for “acts of violence” (tearing up ballot papers) across the country..
The Caracas Metro (subway) and MetroBus services will stay open through 11.00 p.m. this evening charging no fares.
CNE president Tibisay Lucena says that (despite election rules which say the polls must close at 4:00 p.m.) many polling stations in the regions will stay open “as long as it takes!”
Un Nuevo Tiempo, leader Enrique Marquez is claiming violations of voter rights by military vigilating the vote under Plan República security regulations. He says that CNE officials are keeping at least 150 polling stations open across the country in direct contravention of electoral law.
In eastern Anzoategui State an electricity blackout in five neighborhoods in Puerto La Cruz has caused significant delays with computerized voting machines unable to be used until the power supply is restored. Utility officials were hoping to have everything up and running again by 6:00 p.m.
VHeadline Venzuela News
vheadline@gmail.com
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