"Today is a new era," the president told screaming supporters. "Venezuela is red, very red."
With 78 percent of the votes counted, electoral authorities announced that Chavez, 52, had secured 61.3 percent of the vote to 38.4 percent for Manuel Rosales, whose candidacy united a fractured opposition but had only four months to gather momentum. Minutes after the National Electoral Council announced Chavez had garnered 5.9 million votes to 3.7 million for Rosales, the president appeared at the balcony of the presidential palace.
Euphoric supporters, ignoring a downpour, burst into the streets, waving flags, shooting off fireworks and chanting pro-Chavez slogans.
"Everything has been completed, the great victory of the Bolivarian revolution," Chavez said, as rain soaked him and close aides on the balcony. "It's another great victory: a victory of love, a victory of peace, a victory of hope. It's a victory for all Venezuela. May Venezuela be victorious always."
Seen in Left Eye on the News
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