Venezuelan Socialists Win in Eight of Thirteen Regional Elections

Mérida, December 6^th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela held elections for two governorships and eleven mayoralties on Sunday. According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won seven mayoralties, one governorship, and 52.6% of the total votes cast.

The race for the Mayoralty of Maracaibo, the capital city of Zulia state, was perhaps the most closely watched. It was also the largest contest in terms of votes cast, with a total of 486,789 voters going to the polls. The opposition candidate, Eveling Trejo, won with 58.7% of the vote. She will replace the current opposition mayor, her husband Manuel Rosales, who abandoned the post and fled to Peru last year after national investigators charged him with corruption.

In another important contest, the PSUV candidate Luis Gallardo won the Guárico state governorship with a 77% majority, or 144,619 votes. After the CNE announced his victory, Gallardo told a crowd of supporters: “Thanks to the people of Guárico we were able to have 77% of the vote, which constitutes a historical precedent. This is the vote of Guárico for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela! These are [President Hugo] Chavez’s votes!”

Gallardo holds a doctorate in education and is a lawyer who has been the rector of several public universities and was the co-author of the Guárico state law on cooperative businesses. His victory affirms the PSUV’s continued strong support in rural areas. He will replace the late Willian Lara, a long-time trusted ally of President Hugo Chávez who died when his car plunged into a river in September.

In the other gubernatorial race, the incumbent Liborio Guarulla of the Homeland for All (Patria Para Todos, PPT) party narrowly defeated the PSUV challenger Edgildo Palau with 51.1% of the vote in the sparsely populated state of Amazonas. The PPT party was part of President Chavez’s left wing coalition until recently, when it defected from the Chavista camp and defined itself as an alternative to both the PSUV and the right wing opposition.

The PSUV won the mayoralties of the municipalities of Achaguas in Apure state, Miranda in Carabobo state, Boconó in Trujillo state, Miranda in Trujillo state, Nirgua in Yaracuy state, Manuel Monge in Yaracuy state, and Miranda in Zulia state, according to the CNE.

Opposition candidates won in the municipalities of Panamericano in Tachira state and Arismendi in Nueva Esparta state, both of which previously had PSUV mayors, as well as Carrizal municipality in Miranda state.

Out of a total of 1,761,961 eligible voters in the 13 electoral contests, a total of 901,041 voted, producing an overall turnout rate of 51.1%. The PSUV received 473,570 votes in total, according to the CNE website.

A total of 3,425 polling booths and 1,064 voting centers were set up in the two states and eleven municipal districts. The voting process went smoothly and without irregularities, and the polls closed shortly after six o’clock in the evening in most voting centers.

The elections took place following two weeks of torrential rains that caused severe flooding in many states. Authorities have declared states of emergency in several states where voting occurred, including Miranda, Trujillo, Nueva Esparta, Yaracuy, and Zulia. The rains are the largest Venezuela has seen in 40 years and they have killed more than thirty people and displaced more than 70,000, according to the government.

Sunday’s election came two months after the September 26^th National Assembly elections, in which the PSUV won a smaller-than-anticipated 59% majority of the 165-seat legislature.

Venezuela, known for having frequent democratic elections, has its next election scheduled for December 2012, when President Hugo Chavez will run for a third term against a coalition of opposition parties that appears to be more united than previously.