NO!
Posted on 12/02/2007 9:37:41 PM PST by james500
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lost a tight vote on Sunday in a referendum on giving him new powers and scrapping term limits on his left-wing rule.
The national electoral authority said early on Monday the "No" camp won 51 percent of the vote compared to the pro-Chavez "Yes" camp's 49 percent.
It said the trend could not be reserved and declared Chavez the loser.
The referendum vote on a raft of reforms would have allowed Chavez to run for reelection indefinitely, control Venezuela's foreign currency reserves, appoint loyalists over regional elected officials and censor the media if he declares an emergency.
Chavez has said he wants to rule for life and turn Venezuela into a socialist state. But defeat will likely put the Cuba ally under intense pressure to slow or halt his self-declared socialist revolution and step down when his term ends in 2013.
Chavez called the referendum vote "a photo finish".
(Additional reporting by Fabian Andres Cambero, Patricia Rondon and Jorge Silva, Writing by Saul Hudson; Editing by Kieran Murray)
WoooHooo!!! That means the vote was too big to cheat!
Hugh Chapez is Series, very Series about this. It keeps getting Hugher and Hugher, and it may be the Hughest Chapez Series yet.
I'm surprised that a legit count is being allowed and that, like Saddam, he just didn't declare himself the winner as soon as the polls closed and let it go at that.
Can this be true? Somehow I think Chavez will find a locked Seattle closet full of enough votes to put him over the top by a comfortable margin.
This must be awfully dissapointing for the Kos Kidz.
Where was Carter when Chavez needed him?
He can have about five more referendums before that time. Venezuelans can only hope the tide has turned for him.
All this means is he’ll either seize power, or have another vote.
The real numbers are not as tight, I’m sure! He just couldn’t stuff enough ballots.
I’m astonished. However, I notice that Chavez said this was a photo finish and NOT that he was conceding. We’ll have to see if he just goes ahead and does this stuff anyway.
In hindsight it was pretty dumb to automate almost all of the voting machines. Harder to manipulate the votes. Guess they just don’t make crackpot dictators like they used to.
2013? Hopefully he'll pass peacefully into the netherworld before then. With some help if necessary.
I am really surprised ......wonder what games he will now play!
Congratulations, people of Venezuela.
The question is, have the votes from Detroit come in yet...
Good. Little commie f**k got what he deserves. The vote was too overwhelmingly ‘NO’ that even Chavez couldn’t cheat his way out.
Follow up with a ‘Night of the Long Knives’ and all will be well again.
“The national electoral authority said early on Monday the “No” camp won 51 percent of the vote compared to the pro-Chavez “Yes” camp’s 49 percent.
It said the trend could not be reserved and declared Chavez the loser.”
It’s official. Even Hugo wouldn’t mess with the final results. He may try something else but he’ll still have lost the election.
Gov. Fraudoire is on the phone to Hugito as we speak, advising on tactics.
Chavez is conceding defeat now (live video stream):
http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/8409.htm
(In the tradition of dictators everywhere, his speech could go on for hours...)
One round...just one lousy little .50 cal. round...
Somehow, I don’t think this is the end of the reform fight in Venz...
Kind of a hollow victory when he has six years to come up with more of these kinds of stunts to try to extend his rule.
I won’t believe the results until verified by Saint Jimmah Carter.
I wonder if Chavez brought in Bill Daley to help him cheat, the way algore did in 2000?
If you can’t even successfully manipulate an election, how good a socialist dictator can you really be? Doesn’t he flunk some major authoritarian test here?
They don’t make dictators like they used to.
POR QUE NO TE CALLAS?
I’m speechless. I hope it holds, WOW!
If Chavez doesn’t overturn this Castro may intervene. Commies ain’t gonna roll over so quickly.
How long before he demands a recount?
Hugo will say, “George Bush’s Fault” and call another election or just say he won and that is that.
Like W, Kennedy et al felt after the immigration amnesty pos bill tanked. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!!
He needs removing soon.
Does this mean Hillary will have to change her plans so as not to allow the great unwashed to vote on such a power grab if she is elected?
This may be the signal the military has been waiting for to get rid of this bum.
I believe you are right...to HUGE to CHEAT...bet he doesn’t last till 2013...HOORAY FOR THE VZ PEOPLE!!!!
thank God for Diebold and Rove
And he is standing in front of a portrait of Simon Bolivar giving this endless speech. He keeps saying, “por ahora, por ahora,” for now, for now, which strikes me as sinister, to say the least. Now he just said the revolutionary government is here. “We know how to convert seeming defeat into moral victories.”
It seems that Chavez finally bit off more than he could chew.
This endless blabbing is driving me mad, but I keep watching him. It reminds me of Clinton’s long goodbye on the day Bush was sworn in.
What’s a Hugo Ego to do.
What channel are you watching it on? Is it available in the US to watch the pig squirm?
Give him time. Totalitarians don't care about election returns anyway, not really. He'll appoint some judge to rule the outcome invalid.
Link is at post 19.
The idiot can’t even pull off being a dictator.
Thank you.
LOL. He will leave office on a slab or in chains.
Sorry. Ya se acabo.
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