Sunday, November 23, 2008

UPDATE: Venezuelan elections ... Opposition candidates to win 9 key governorships ... exit surveys show!

Opposition candidates are expected to win 9 key governorships in first exit surveys just released (8.00 p.m. Caracas)! 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.

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 looks increasingly likely that Antonio Ledezma will win over PSUV's Aristobulo Isturiz.

Breaking news from Bolivar State shows 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!"

Yaracuy State is being held by PSUV, results expected soon!

MIRANDA STATE:
Diosdado Cabello 57%
Henrique Capriles Radonsky 41%
Others 2%

Carabobo State (at 6:19 p.m.)
Henrique Salas Feo 40%
Luis Felipe Acosta 21%
Mario Silva 39%

Barinas State (at 6:17 p.m.)
Adan Chavez 42%
Julio Cesar Reyes 42%
Rafael Jimenez 16%

Sucre Mayor - Caracas (at 6:21 p.m.)
Jesse Chacon 56%
Carlos Ocariz 42%

Iribarren Mayor, Barquisimeto (at 6:04 p.m.)
Alfredo Ramos 41%
Amalia Saez 38%
Marisabel Rodriguez 16%