Chavez Loses
The Associated Press is reporting that Hugo Chavez has lost the referendum to grant him a dictatorship.
Voters defeated the sweeping measures by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout just 56 percent.
She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible.
"This was a photo finish," Chavez said immediately after the vote, adding that unlike past Venezuelan governments, his respects the people's will.
It was the first victory for an emboldened opposition against Chavez after nine years of electoral defeats.
He's spinning it, but the fact is that past governments honored the wishes of the voters and let Chavez into office. His words are hollow.
World news | Gaius Monday, 3 December , 2007
By Former Republican, Monday, 3 December , 2007 @ 7:27 am
Gaius, in an earlier post you said “Despite polls showing that the Venezuelan people did not want Chavez’s “reforms”, Chavez utterly controls the mechanisms of voting.”
Obviously, Chavez did not utterly control the mechanisms of voting. When rational people discover they have been wrong, they reassess their view, to try to figure out why they made a mistake.
By Maggie, Monday, 3 December , 2007 @ 9:57 am
Pity party … My house … tonight … 8:00ET … Bring Canadian beer in Canadian fridges …
Focker … OUT!
By terrence, Monday, 3 December , 2007 @ 10:09 am
Wait a few months and see what the Thug does; he will not quitely give up power, or quitely stop trying to get more, and more, and more….
And, did you know, it is Bushitler’s fault that Saint tHugo did not “win” So, he has an easy excuse to try again.
By martian, Monday, 3 December , 2007 @ 12:52 pm
I must admit that I find myself absolutely shocked that Chavez actually admits losing the referendum. I, too, expected him to put out his own (winning) figures no matter what the actual vote count was. I other words, I figured the “fix” was in. I will admit that I was mistaken about the extent of his thuggery, not about the fact that he IS and REMAINS a thug!
Former Republican (and apparently not a big loss to the party), the very fact that Gaius has posted this story shows that he knows his original assessment may have given more credit to the extent of Chavez’s thuggery than he should have. I am sure that he is also in the process of re-assessing his position on this matter. However, I am with Gaius in being of the opinion that just because a thug didn’t have as much reach as we gave him credit for, doesn’t mean he’s not still a THUG!
By martian, Monday, 3 December , 2007 @ 12:59 pm
Oh, also, Former Republican, notice that the story says that 88% of the vote is in and the trend is “irreversible”. I live in Florida. I know for a fact that with 12% of a vote outstanding and only a 2% margin of difference between the two sides, the trend is decidedly NOT “irreversible”. It could still come out the other way even without manipulation by Chavez. With 12% still outstanding, he has a lot of margin still to play with. And then there’s the possibility of recounts. Chavez may be of the same mindset as Democrats who think that if a close election doesn’t come out the way you want, you just keep re-counting and changing the criteria for what counts as a vote until it does!
By Bleepless, Monday, 3 December , 2007 @ 1:31 pm
It seems unlikely that the trend was, in fact, irreversible. For the head of the National Electoral Council to say that, however, it looks rather like a warning to Chavez that stuffing the remaining ballot boxes (even more than expected) would smell so bad that nobody would believe the outcome, and Chavismo would be endangered by the backlash.
By the way, I do not believe the official numbers, anyway. The poor caudillo got bad advice and did not steal enough.
By Quilly Mammoth, Monday, 3 December , 2007 @ 2:36 pm
Ditto.
I think he was truly surprised that he had lost.