President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has won a third term in office, securing a clear lead over rival Manuel Rosales. With most of the ballots counted, Mr Chavez had taken more than 60 per cent of the vote, officials said according to BBC Online Monday.
The president, who has secured the support of the poor by using oil to fund welfare, told crowds his left-wing “Bolivarian revolution” had triumphed.
Admitting defeat, his social democrat rival said he would go on “fighting for democracy” in the streets if necessary.
Minutes after the preliminary results were announced, Mr Chavez appeared at the balcony of the presidential palace in Caracas. – Today a new era has started, with the expansion of the revolution, he told tens of thousands of jubilant people.
He now has a clear mandate to rule for the next six years, and is likely to set about reforming the Venezuelan constitution to remove any limits on how many times he can be re-elected, the BBC noted.
Sundays election saw a high turnout and the poll was monitored by hundreds of international observers.
The president, who won elections in both 1998 and 2000, is the fourth leftist to win an election in the region in recent weeks. He won after a campaign in which he characterised his rival as a lackey of the US.
Mr Manuel Rosales, governor of the oil-rich western state of Zulia, for his part said the leftist leader was turning Venezuela into a communist state, calling him “a puppet seated on Castros lap (skød)”.
He argued that the countrys long-term interests lay in free-market policies and attracting foreign investment, and accused Chavez of concentrating power in his own hands while squandering (bortøde) Venezuelas resources.
