VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has gained fresh energy for his left-wing populist "revolution" and new democratic credentials with his resounding win in Sunday's referendum.
His stunned opponents, who had focused their campaign on portraying him as an inept dictator afraid of elections, are now licking their wounds. They must repair their battered image if they hope to challenge Mr Chavez in the presidential election in 2006.
"This is a triumph for Chavez. It certainly renews his credentials in the short-term, but he will have to work on his economic and oil policies, reducing political polarisation and seeking a rapprochement with the private sector," said Mr Michael Penfold, a political analyst at Caracas's IESA business school.
Basking in international recognition of his victory, the Venezuelan leader is promising to accelerate his policies to spread the petro-dollar riches of the world's fifth biggest oil exporter more fairly.
"Venezuela has changed for ever. There is no turning back ... the country will never return to that false democracy of the past where elites ruled," Mr Chavez said after winning 58 per cent of the vote in Sunday's poll.
The opposition polled 42 per cent, a crushing disappointment for a broad but fractious coalition which had staked all on unseating the voluble former paratrooper who dismisses them as a rich but selfish minority.
Already suffering from internal recriminations over their defeat, opposition leaders are crying fraud, although international observers have endorsed Mr Chavez's victory.
Record high oil prices will initially help the fiery nationalist Mr Chavez maintain the generous social spending that has been a hallmark of his rule since he was first elected in 1998.
Relieved financial and oil markets greeted his win as the least risky short-term scenario for oil-rich Venezuela, which has been pummelled over the last three years by often violent conflict over his policies.
These markets used to wince at Mr Chavez's acerbic anti-capitalist rhetoric, but they recognise that his self-styled "revolutionary" government is careful to pay its debts on time and practices a pragmatic financial policy.
Nevertheless, the small Caracas stock exchange fell 4.3 per cent yesterday, dragged down by a sell-off in stocks following Mr Chavez's victory.
Opposition leaders insist the referendum was tainted by fraud and accuse the government of manipulating voting machines to overturn what they assert was a win for the anti-Chavez vote. They demand an exhaustive count of all paper ballots produced by the voting machines.
But their calls for protests have received a muted response among people weary of months of political feuding.- (Reuters)
The Labour Party spokesperson on foreign affairs, Mr Michael D. Higgins, has urged the Government to use whatever influence it has to ensure that the outcome of the referendum in Venezuela is fully respected.
"The referendum in Venezuela was probably the most closely monitored electoral process ever on the American continent.
"The process has been endorsed by organisations like the Cater Institute, the Organisation of American States, and the EU, all of which have enormous experience in supervising elections and referenda. Their views must be respected.
"It is most disappointing to find that, despite the views of the international observers, the United States is still declining to endorse the outcome. One suspects that they would have no such difficulty in endorsing the result had President Chavez lost by a similar margin."