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News > Latin America

Venezuela Election: Socialists Win Zulia Governorship, Nearly Sweep State Capitals

  • Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (R) during an event with supporters, next to newly elected mayor of Libertador district Erika Farias in Caracas, Venezuela December 10, 2017.

    Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (R) during an event with supporters, next to newly elected mayor of Libertador district Erika Farias in Caracas, Venezuela December 10, 2017. | Photo: AVN

Published 10 December 2017
Opinion

The PSUV and allies took 308 of the 335 municipalities up for grabs in Sunday's election.

Candidates for Venezuela's Socialist Party took 23 of 24 state capitals as well as the governorship for the state of Zulia, election authorities announced, as they released partial results in Sunday's municipal election.

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President Nicolas Maduro Urges Venezuelans to Cast Vote

"These elections were accompanied by 9,139,564 voters," announced Sandra Oblitas, vice president of the National Electoral Council, or CNE, amounting to 47.32 percent voter turn out.

CNE officials presented partial results for the capitals of the 23 states as well as Caracas, with candidates for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) taking all but the top mayor position in Tachira state.

Omar Prieto of the PSUV also won the governorship for the state of Zulia, leaving the PSUV in all but four of the country's 23 states. The post in the key state was vacated after the opposition politician who won the Oct. 15 regional elections refused to be sworn in by the Constituent Assembly.

Overall, the PSUV and allies took 308 of the 335 municipalities up for grabs in Sunday's election.

 

Earlier in the day, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro lauded the participation.

"There is an extraordinary electoral participation," Maduro said Sunday. "I want to thank the people of Venezuela who have come to the voting centers to exercise their right to vote. "

Maduro stressed that "certified, reliable and audited results of the 335 municipalities in the country" would be given Sunday night.

With 19.7 million eligible voters, Maduro had called on people to vote in what is the South American nation's third election this year.

"December 10 has arrived and the Venezuelan people have a new encounter with democracy, with peace and sovereignty," Maduro tweeted in the early hours as polls opened.

"Today we all have a sacred duty to express ourselves through a vote to consolidate a great popular victory."

The CNE decided to change the voting locations of some voters to prevent acts of violence by sectors of the Venezuelan right seen during the July 30 Constituent Assembly elections.

Sunday marked Venezuela's third election in less than six months and the 24th in the last 18 years.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said that the PSUV had won all states. We regret the error.

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