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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Venezuela's Chavez on brink of referendum defeat |
| 2004-08-16 |
| Until he starts to really count the votes, and count, and count, and count.... The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, looked to be losing his grip on power last night as exit polls showed him to be trailing the opposition by almost a million votes. The figures were early indications that, for the first time in the country's history, the President may have his term in office cut short by a referendum. The mid-morning results showed that the opposition, already boasting an enormous 1,758,000 votes to Chavez's 798,000, is well on its way to reaching the target of 3.76 million votes it needs to oust the authoritarian, left-wing President. Turn-out for the referendum was high, with millions of Venezuelans queuing from the early hours at polling stations all over the oil-rich country to decide the political fate of the firebrand Mr Chavez. SNIP And they kept the polls open very, very late. |
| Posted by:Anonymous2u |
| #7 Former Prez Carter has endored the Chavez victory. |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-08-16 3:56:11 PM |
| #6 The Devil's Excrement is reporting on the developing story... the short form, excerpted: The CD says the results are exactly the opposite based on : Exit polls and the addition of all of the final results of all of the polling stations in the country added by Sumate. They said that the two CNE Directors that are not pro-Chavez were not allowed in the totalling of the data of the CNE. There was no audit of the paper ballots and this was a gigantic fraud. Nothing yet from OAS and the Carter Center. I hear two different rumors, one that at ten AM ther willbe a press conference, two, that OAS may leave the country without saying anything a la Peru. Very sad and confusing outcome. This is the worst possible. The Cd also said they will ask for the addition of all paper ballots printed by the voting machines. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-08-16 10:51:28 AM |
| #5 Rooters is happy I bet as it loves oppressors of every ilk. I don't know about Reuters, but the Beeb's |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-08-16 10:34:22 AM |
| #4 Jimmy Carter is, apparently, in Venezuala today. Oil is down slightly on news of Chavez's claim of victory. |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-08-16 10:27:47 AM |
| #3 As I predicted. He had it rigged to win regardless. Rooters is happy I bet as it loves oppressors of every ilk. |
| Posted by: Flamebait93268 2004-08-16 5:16:28 AM |
| #2 Reuters declares that with 94% of the vote counted Chavez "survived", with the notation that if he had lost supportive oil workers could have disrupted oil production ... |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2004-08-16 5:07:13 AM |
| #1 I predict the will "win by a landslide." |
| Posted by: Flamebait93268 2004-08-16 1:33:23 AM |