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Ruling coalition sweeps Venezuelan elections |
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| Voters line up at polls in Caracas December 4 in elections to Venezuela's National Assembly. The election was a landslide victory for the government headed by President Hugo Chávez, whose Fifth Republic Movement announced it had won 114 of the 167 seats. Allied parties gained the remaining seats, giving the governing coalition full control over the legislature.
Faced with the prospect of a resounding defeat, the U.S.-backed opposition-including the two parties that ruled the country for four decades prior to Chávez winning the presidency in 1998-chose to boycott the election. The turnout was low at 25 percent of registered voters, due partly to torrential rains and the boycott, government officials said; it was lowest in wealthy neighborhoods. Opposition leaders claimed the elections were illegitimate. Chávez replied, "These old parties, they are already dead."
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