Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents gained a stronger foothold in Venezuela’s largest cities in mayoral elections, though they failed to deliver the crushing victory they had sought in hopes of breaking a prolonged political stalemate.
Members of the ruling socialist party won in 196 of 335 municipalities up for grabs, according to preliminary results announced by the National Electoral Council.
The opposition took 53 and independent candidate won eight races, while the remaining 78 contests were too close to call.
The opposition, which won 46 municipalities in the 2008 elections, retained control of the country’s two biggest cities, Caracas and Maracaibo, and took at least four state capitals currently in the hands of government supporters.
Its biggest trophy was Barinas, the hometown of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and political base of his brother, Barinas state Governor Adan Chavez.
However, opposition forces did not capitalize on discontent with Venezuela’s soaring inflation and worsening shortages of basic goods that they hoped would put them on top in the much-watched national total vote.
They said such a finish would punish Maduro in his first electoral test since he narrowly defeated Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles for the presidency in April.
In a triumphant speech late on Sunday, Maduro dedicated his victory to Chavez and promised more measures to protect the poor in the coming days, including a drive to keep food prices low.
“The Bolivarian Revolution continues now with more strength,” Maduro told hundreds of supporters at a rally in downtown Caracas to celebrate what he called a “grand victory.”
Voting took place in relative calm, with only minor disruptions and isolated acts of violence.
Turnout of 58 percent was heavy for local elections, but trailed the 80 percent that cast ballots in April’s presidential election, reflecting fatigue that has set in across Venezuela’s political spectrum the past few months.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
RSS