Venezezuela Information Centre - Dec10, 2006
http://www.vicuk.org
At Venezuela's presidential election on 3 December, Hugo Chavez received a massive 63% of the vote with Manuel Rosales on 37%. Chavez won over seven million votes, three million more than Rosales.
The vote was scrutinised by over 300 observers from the European Union, the Organisation of American States, Mercosur and the Carter Center.
The election saw the greatest ever number of votes cast in Venezuela’s history. Far from undermining democracy, as some have claimed, since Chavez was first elected participation in presidential elections has risen from seven million to around 12 million votes*. Image
Not only did Chavez increase his share of the vote from 63% from 59%, he received over one million more votes than in the 2004 recall referendum. Since the 1998 election when Chavez was first elected, he has gained an additional 3.49 million votes - an increase of 95%*.
Chavez also won a majority in every state in Venezuela at the presidential election.
The turnout of 74.97% was the highest since 1988. However, in 1988 only 7.2 million people voted - four million fewer than at this year’s election – in part reflecting how a large number of people were previously excluded from Venezuela's electoral process.
See response in Britain to Chavez victory at: www.vicuk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=159&Itemid=30
*This estimate is based on CNE figures estimating a 74.97% turnout of the 15.9m registered voters. See http://www.cne.gov.ve/noticiaDetallada.php?id=4055
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