President Hugo Chavez and emboldened opposition parties both argued Tuesday they were the winners in Venezuelan legislative elections in which the leftist-populist leader lost his two-thirds supermajority.
"If we add up the votes of (his) United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) all around, we have 5,422,040 votes", Chavez told a press conference. He said the Democratic Unity Table netted 5,320,175 votes.
"There is a difference of more than 100,000 votes, and this was not even a national election," Chavez said, scrambling to downplay opposition claims of great inroads. "They are claiming as theirs 520,000 votes with a coalition that does not even belong to theirs," Chavez charged.
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The elections were widely seen as a test of strength for the polarizing Chavez, whose popularity has waned amid an economic recession, inflation and soaring crime rates in Caracas.
The opposition claimed to have won a majority of popular votes and to have won enough seats to challenge the uncontested control Chavez has exercised over the legislature since 2005.
"OK, Mr. President. You may have won more seats in the legislature, but there is something you have to understand. You are losing your people, because the people feel deceived," said Antonio Ledezma, mayor of metropolitan Caracas.
"I am blown away by how the president is doing his math. Look at what the PSUV has, as a bloc, and it got 48 percent. So there are 52 percent who were not buying that," said Henrique Capriles, opposition governor of Miranda state.
"We aren't saying that Chavez isn't strong. It is a strength that we acknowledge and we do not disregard," Capriles said.
