Chavez victorious

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his supporters were on Monday celebrating a decisive victory over the country's conservative opposition.

National Electoral Council President Francisco Carrasquero said in a national broadcast the "No" option opposing Chavez's recall

had obtained just over 58% of the vote, while the "Yes" vote obtained nearly 42%.

It was a victory for democracy, as Chavez had pledged to stand by the will of the people. In the end, they did not let him down.

Thousands of Chavez supporters took to the streets of the capital, Caracas, to celebrate on Monday night, waving red flags and sounding truck and car horns.

Chavez, who survived a right-wing coup in 2002, will now serve out the remainder of his six-year term of office, which ends in 2006.

Opposition leaders predictably denounced the victory as electoral fraud and called on their supporters to take to the streets in protest.

Former US President Jimmy Carter, the head of the Carter Centre, and former Colombian President César Gaviria, the president of the Organisation of American States, insisted that to the best of their knowledge the election had been fair.

Speaking to his supporters, Chazez declared: "Starting today Venezuela enters a new phase. Venezuela has changed forever. There is no going back.

"I have been subjected to the evaluation of the people and, as I have passed the exam, I intend to dedicate myself to my work with even greater determination. This has given me an unprecedented strength to carry on fighting for the country for the rest of my life."

Several people were wounded in clashes between rival supporters on Monday night after the result became known.

Some 4.9 million voters backed Chavez to continue his policies of more equitably distributing resources in the oil rich country.

"The vote of 3.5 million for the opposition suggests they never reached the 3.8 million signatures they claimed when calling for the referendum, and that the electoral council was perhaps right at the time to suggest that many of those signatures were fraudulent," said Gregory Wilpert of Venezuelanalysis.com, a Caracas-based website.

Venezuala is the fifth-largest oil producer in the world but one in three of its people live in abject poverty, a situation Chavez has pledged to reverse. The oil giants — like PhillipsConoco — keep 84% of the proceeds of the sale of Venezuela oil; the nation gets only 16%.

Chavez wants to double his Treasury's take to 30% to fund his social programmes, which has incurred the displeasure of the US administration.