Venezuela: the election results

With the results just in, pro-Chavez has won 17 of the 22 states, anti-Chavez has won 3 states and there are 2 states still unannounced (Táchira and Carabobo). With friends I made a guess that he'd lose 6......he lost a min of 3 and a max of 5.

However it's not all bad for the Chávez opposition not by a long way. Significantly, anti-Chavez has won the mayor's seat in Caracas (Antonio Ledezma), along with the hotly contested Zulia region. Miranda is also in the loss column for Hugo. All in all (and it may be early to call it), but the whole thing has a feeling of "honours even". Chávez gets the vast majority of states, and Anti-Chávez wins the two most populous regions. Hey, cool...something for everyone! Isn't that what democracy's all about?

Here are all the results with 95.67% of votes counted, with the anti-Chávez winning candidates in bold type.

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Yaracuy: Julio César León Heredia 57.46%, Filipo Lapi 29.26%

Delta Amacuro: Lisetta Hernández 55.54%, Pedro Rafael Santaella 25.85%

Vargas: Jorge Luis García Carneiro 61.56%, Roberto Smith 32.18%

Zulia: Pablo Pérez 53.59%, Giancarlo Di Martino 45.02 %

Apure: Jesús Aguijarte 56.48%, Miriam Flor Verdugo 26.54%

Aragua: Rafael Isea 58.56%, Henry Rosales 40.17%

Barinas: Adán Chávez 49.63%, Julio César Reyes 44.58%

Bolívar: Francisco Rangel Gómez 46.97%, Andrés Velásquez 30.47%

Cojedes: Teodoro Bolívar 51.53%, Alberto Galíndez 40.36%

Falcón: Stella Lugo 55.27%, Gregorio Graterol 44.49%

Guárico: Willian Lara 52.08%, Lenny Manuitt 33.68%

Lara: Henry Falcón 73.15%, Pedro Pablo Alcántara 14.85%

Mérida: Marcos Orellana 54.62%, Willian Dávila 45.11%

Miranda: Henrique Capriles Radonski 52.56%, Diosdado Cabello 46.64%

Monagas: José Gregorio Briceño 64.79%, Domingo Urbina 15.41%

Nueva Esparta: Morel Rodríguez 57.64%, Willian Fariñas 41.69%

Portuguesa: Filmar Castro Soteldo 57%, Jovito Villegas 27.28%

Trujillo: Hugo Cabezas 59.47%, Enrique Catalán 27%

Sucre: Enrique Maestre 56.08%, Eduardo Morales Gil 42.62%

Anzoátegui: Tarek Willian Saab 55.06%, Gustavo Marcano 40.50%

Municipio Libertador: Jorge Rodríguez 53.05%, Stalin González 41.92%

Alcaldía Metropolitana: Antonio Ledezma 52.45%, Aristóbulo Istúriz 44.92%

And now it's all over, all we need to do is sit through a bunch of "we won and you lost, suckaz" and fraud accusations from both sides and then the whole thing will die down. In the last couple of weeks I've noted the English speaking media's line that Hugo has bet the farm on these vital yada yada, but sad to say it's just not true; it was just a bit of spin to sell a story.

Like I said before, to the disappointment of many these elections are not that important and will change nothing.