New president for Venezuela
Opposition calls for recount after Chavez’s successor pulls out razor- thin victory over challenger
As protesters hit the street, the electoral council certified the razorthin presidential victory of Hugo Chavez’s hand- picked successor.
CARACAS — Venezuela’s government- friendly electoral council quickly certified the razor- thin presidential victory of Hugo Chavez’s hand- picked successor Monday, apparently ignoring opposition demands for a recount as anti- government protests broke out in the bitterly polarized country.
People stood on their balconies in Caracas apartment buildings banging pots and pans in protest as the electoral council proclaimed Nicolas Maduro president for the next six years.
Across town, thousands of students clashed with National Guard troops in riot gear who fired tear gas and plastic bullets to turn the protesters back from marching on the city centre. Students threw stones and pieces of concrete.
The city was otherwise peaceful, although protests were reported in provincial cities. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Maduro was elected Sunday by a margin of 50.7 per cent to 49.1 per cent over challenger Henrique Capriles — a difference of just 235,000 votes out of 14.8 million cast, according to the official count.
Sworn in as acting president after Chavez’s March 5 death from cancer, Maduro squandered a double- digit advantage in opinion polls in two weeks as Capriles highlighted what he called the ruling Chavistas’ abysmal management of the oil- rich country’s economy and infrastructure. He pointed to food and medicine shortages, chronic power outages and rampant crime.
By contrast, Chavez had defeated Capriles by a nearly 11- point margin in October. Until every vote is counted,
Until every vote is counted, Venezuela has an) illegitimate president and we denounce that to the world. HENRIQUE CAPRILES CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT
Venezuela has an “illegitimate president and we denounce that to the world,” Capriles tweeted Monday.
One of the five members of the National Electoral Council, independent Vicente Diaz, also backed a full recount, as did the United States and the Organization of American States.
But the electoral council president, Tibisay Lucena, said in announcing the outcome Sunday that it was “irreversible.” At the proclamation ceremony Monday, she called Venezuela “a champion of democracy” and defended its electronic vote system as bulletproof.
Capriles, a 40- year- old state governor, had demanded the proclamation be suspended. He called for the pot- banging protest and asked supporters to gather outside the electoral council Tuesday
Capriles said a vote count by his campaign produced “a different result” and it received more than 3,200 complaints of irregularities — all by pro- government forces. He demanded every single ballot be recounted.
The winner is to be formally inaugurated Friday for a sixyear term.
Maduro said during his victory speech Sunday night that he had no problem with a recount. Maduro did not, however, endorse a manual recount of individual ballots.
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said a “100 per cent audit” of the results would be “an important, prudent and necessary step to ensure that all Venezuelans have confidence in these results.”
The secretary- general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, also called for a “full recount.” Individual ballots are not included in such audits.
No independent observer teams monitored the election as Chavez’s government in recent years has rejected them. Instead, it invited witnesses to “accompany the process.”
The challenger’s camp has not explained how it intends to proceed with the recount demand.
The logistics alone are daunting.
A total of 39,319 boxes of paper ballot receipts were emitted by Venezuela’s electronic voting system Sunday. They are now stored in warehouses under the control of the military. Those receipts would need to be checked against vote count printouts emitted by each individual voting machine. Those results would then be checked with the electoral council’s central tally.
The electronic voting system itself was never questioned by the opposition and it has drawn praise from institutions such as the Carter Center as among the most reliable.
Analysts called the election result, which followed an often ugly campaign full of mudslinging, a disaster for Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver who is believed to have close ties to Cuba.
He faces enormous economic challenges, as well as the task of holding together a movement built around the magnetism of the now- departed Chavez. Maduro, a longtime foreign minister to Chavez, had counted on a wave of sympathy for the charismatic leader.