EL UNIVERSAL

Before his followers gathered around the presidential palace of Miraflores, downtown Caracas, President Hugo Chávez thanked God for "a clear, transparent and sound victory."
 
President Chávez would not be recalled, according to preliminary results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE). The agency's president, Francisco Carrasquero, said in a nation-wide mandatory radio and TV broadcasting that a total of 4,991,483 votes (58.25 percent) against the recall and 3,576,517 votes (41 percent) for the revoking referendum had been counted. The opposition announced it rejects those results.
 
Previously, Ezequiel Zamora and Sobella Mejías, directors of the National Electoral Council (CNE), had said that preliminary results on the presidential recall vote would be given without checking all the minutes and without the totaling commission being set up, and so "the results to be given by some of the CNE directors could not be considered official."
 
In a statement read by Mejías, the two directors said that the first announcement would be made "even if the parties, international agencies, Smartmatic (supplier of the electoral machines used in the vote), directors Ezequiel Zamora and Sobella Mejías have not checked the minutes on the vote."

"Violence and fascism were defeated"
 
Chávez showed up at the so-called "People's balcony" accompanied by vice president José Vicente Rangel, Energy minister Rafael Rodríguez, minister of Information Jesse Chacón, minister of Planning Jorge Giordani, Diosdado Cabello, and a son and two of his daughters.
 
He justified long queues in the electoral centers, saying that records had been broken both in the total of voters registered with the National Electoral Council and in the participation of voters in the referendum.
 
He also said that those who voted against him should not feel defeated. "They have the right to think different to us." He sent a message to all Venezuelans opposing to him: "We respect that position and invite you to accept this electoral process as a victory embracing you all." The big victory of the Venezuelan opposition, according to him, is that "violence and fascism were defeated."

He announced a new stage of the Bolivarian revolution, from Monday to December 2006, "to deepen social successes and the fight against exclusion and poverty."

He also said that the victory on the referendum was a triumph over the wild neoliberalism "they tried to impose to us from Washington."

Referring to the government of the U.S., he said "the ball fell in the middle of the White House (¿) This is a gift for Bush," making reference to a promise of hitting a home run to the U.S. president George Bush.

He also announced that a day off would be given to all public servers on Monday, and made a call to private sector to follow the example.

Opposition rejects results announced by the CNE
 
Henry Ramos Allup, acting as a spokesperson for the Democratic Coordinator, announced that the opposition umbrella group rejects the results announced by the National Electoral Council, which gave President Hugo Chávez as a winner in the recall vote.

Ramos Allup announced that, according to the opposition alliance, 59.4 percent of votes were in favor of revoking Chávez' mandate, whereas only 40.6 percent of votes were against the recall.

He highlighted that CNE's figures give the opposition a number of votes lower than the total of signatures gathered to trigger the revoking referendum.

He emphasized that pro-government CNE directors did not allowed to count the paper ballots. Besides, they were denied an auditing of the voting machines and representatives of the opposition were not allowed to be present at the totaling of votes.

Therefore, the Democratic Coordinator would start contacting local and international agencies to denounce what they consider to be a fraud.

Translated by Patricia Torres