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Andean Group - December 2008 (ISSN 1741-4466)

A bittersweet victory for Chávez

The results of the latest round of state and municipal elections point to a subtle shift in the political landscape in Venezuela. While President Hugo Chávez 's ruling leftwing Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) was the clear outright winner, the rightwing opposition electoral coalition, Unidad Opositora, won important tactical victories in the country's main electoral corridor, including the capital Caracas and the surrounding state of Miranda. Both sides claimed victory. The vote, which also saw the defeat of leftist Chavista dissidents by the PSUV, is likely to presage a return to the fierce and bitter political polarisation of the country into firmly pro- and anti-Chávez camps. With the government set to face a severe test of its economic stewardship in 2009, amid falling oil revenues and run-away inflation, the political atmosphere in the country may become increasingly charged ahead of key legislative polls in 2010 and the subsequent presidential vote in 2012. The president's reaction to the vote was telling: barely a week later he launched a fresh bid for a constitutional reform to lift the ban on presidential term limits.

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