Reuters: Venezuela's Chavez re-elected to extend socialist rule

[visionary]

No way he won by 10%, there was a lot of speculation that he had lost an hour ago and that at best it would be a very close win.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89601Z20121008

Venezuela's Chavez re-elected to extend socialist rule

Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez won re-election in on Sunday, quashing the opposition's best bet at unseating him in 14 years and cementing himself as a dominant figure in modern Latin American history.

The 58-year-old Chavez took 54.42 percent of the vote, with 90 percent of the ballots counted, to 44.97 percent for young opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, official results showed.

Chavez's victory would extend his rule of the OPEC member state to two decades, though he is recovering from cancer and the possibility of a recurrence hangs over his political future.

Jubilant supporters poured onto the streets of Caracas to celebrate the victory of a man who has near-Messianic status among Venezuela's poor, and there was relief too among leftist allies around the region - from Cuba to Bolivia - who rely on his oil-financed generosity.

"I'm celebrating with a big heart," said Mary Reina, a 62-year-old Chavez supporter who lives in the hillside slum where the president cast his vote. "Chavez is the hope of the people and of Latin America."

The mood was grim at Capriles' campaign headquarters, where opposition supporters broke into tears. The opposition will now have to regroup quickly for state elections in December.

[Special K]

Gee, this is shocking...

[thebluefood]

Damn. I was hoping they'd finally rid themselves of that bum.

[nonniey]

He may have won and those on the left who support him will hail his victory and claim it was fair. However even if every vote was counted correctly this definately wasn't a level playing field. Broadcast Media is only allowed a few minutes for each party to advertise, what they they don't include is the Government information programs they have to run, all of which were essentially ads for Chavez.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Suuuuuuuuure

[HailToTheRedskins14]

Amazing that a foreign country has an election and is deemed corrupt, but we have a voting system with no paper trails and you're labelled a cook if you think it can be corrupt. Amazing.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

Amazing that a foreign country has an election and is deemed corrupt, but we have a voting system with no paper trails and you're labelled a cook if you think it can be corrupt. Amazing.

Americans love judging but dont like being judged.

[nonniey]

Amazing that a foreign country has an election and is deemed corrupt, but we have a voting system with no paper trails and you're labelled a cook if you think it can be corrupt. Amazing.

Come on now the Venezuelan election was known to be corrupt and openly so months before a single vote was cast. If you are the only party allowed to advertise in the media wouldn't you say that was a corrupt system? And of course the US system is corrupted as well, example why do you think one party goes ape ---- when an ID requirement is introduced (And yes the other party has their tricks too).

[visionary]

Amazing that a foreign country has an election and is deemed corrupt, but we have a voting system with no paper trails and you're labelled a cook if you think it can be corrupt. Amazing.

Are you suggesting that skepticism towards Veznezuela's government and Chavez's 'elections' and 'governing' style is primarily an American feature? We probably worry less about it that many others around the world. Despite the fact that much of his destructive and harmful policies are aimed at us, though they do far more harm to other countries.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

Come on now the Venezuelan election was known to be corrupt and openly so months before a single vote was cast. If you are the only party allowed to advertise in the media wouldn't you say that was a corrupt system? And of course the US system is corrupted as well, example why do you think one party goes ape ---- when an ID requirement is introduced (And yes the other party has their tricks too).

Jimmy Carter said about Venezuela's "dictatorship" a few weeks ago: "As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world."

Carter won a Nobel prize for his work through the election-monitoring Carter Center, which has observed and certified past Venezuelan elections. But because Washington has sought for more than a decade to delegitimise Venezuela's government, his viewpoint is only rarely reported. His latest comments went unreported in almost all of the US media.

In Venezuela, voters touch a computer screen to cast their vote and then receive a paper receipt, which they verify and deposit in a ballot box. Most of the paper ballots are compared with the electronic tally. This system makes vote-rigging nearly impossible: to steal the vote would require hacking the computers and then stuffing the ballot boxes to match the rigged vote.

Unlike in the US, where in a close vote we really have no idea who won (see Bush v Gore), Venezuelans can be sure that their vote counts. And also unlike the US, where as many as 90 million eligible voters will not vote in November, the government in Venezuela has done everything to increase voter registration (now at a record of about 97%) and participation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...havez-capriles


its funny how those quotes were not reported on any American MSM publications tho.


That is not to call Hugo Chavez a great man, leader, etc. But lets top regurgitating untruths.

[visionary]

I have to admit that I'm no expert on Venezuela, and I didn't realize their voting process is so sophisticated, but I still doubt that the numbers the government released are the true results of the vote.
Also it is noted in the article that there are serious concerns about the fairness of the political system in Venezulea and the election system leading up to the voting.

[nonniey]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...havez-capriles


its funny how those quotes were not reported on any American MSM publications tho.


That is not to call Hugo Chavez a great man, leader, etc. But lets top regurgitating untruths.

What untruths? In the Venezuelan system Political parties are allowed to only officially advertise for a few minutes on broadcast media (For the entire campaign - ie 2-3 commecials). That's it. However, Chavez and his party uses executive authority to force government programing that acts like campaign commercials for free and for as long as they want. In other words the only real political advertizing allowed is from Chavez and his party. Yes it is corrupt and was known to be long before a single vote was cast. As for Jimmy Carter, has any country ever produced a bigger fool? (Ok not counting France).

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

I have to admit that I'm no expert on Venezuela, and I didn't realize their voting process is so sophisticated, but I still doubt that the numbers the government released are the true results of the vote.
Also it is noted in the article that there are serious concerns about the fairness of the political system in Venezulea and the election system leading up to the voting.

there should def be concerns about their political system. I think his actions against the media were justified originally (imagine if Fox or NBC just gossiped against the president everyday, then erroneously made up a story about the president committing crimes and then declared someone else the president. That network should lose its license), but that should not be the end all of opposing media.

But to say there voting system is corrupt is an outright lie.

As for Jimmy Carter, has any country ever produced a bigger fool?

yeah, Jimmy Carter is a fool. Tells me everything I need to know about your statement. Cheers.

[nonniey]

there should def be concerns about their political system. I think his actions against the media were justified originally (imagine if Fox or NBC just gossiped against the president everyday, then erroneously made up a story about the president committing crimes and then declared someone else the president. That network should lose its license), but that should not be the end all of opposing media.

But to say there voting system is corrupt is an outright lie.


yeah, Jimmy Carter is a fool. Tells me everything I need to know about your statement. Cheers.

Well I think the consensus is, even among quite few liberals, that that is exactly what he is. Oh and thanks for conceding the point about the leverage Chavez uses in the Venezualan media to ensure he has a hammerlock on the electoral process in that country.

[LadySkinsFan]

Hate Chavez all you like, but he at least sold low priced oil to heat OUR poor/seniors' homes through Joe Kennedy III's non-profit program. Citgo is the only company I know that did this. Not even our country's corporations donated. So I buy Citgo gas when I can because it's helping OUR poor/seniors.

Plus, we have a USSC that handed the presidency to Bush through Bush v. Gore.