Venezuela’s opposition wins parliament majority
December 7, 2015, 12:44 pm

The opposition has taken control of Venezuela’s parliament for the first time in 16 years. Some 19 million eligible voters – 74 per cent – voted on Sunday [Xinhua]

The number of seats gives the opposition party a majority in parliament in what is a sweeping defeat of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) led by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The PSUV won only 46 seats.

The CNE said that voter turnout was particularly high at over 74 per cent, an indication that many former socialists were now fleeing the national policies that have governed the country for more than 16 years.

Maduro acknowledged the defeat but said the socialist revolution would continue.

“We have come with our morals and our ethics to recognize these adverse results, to accept them and to say to our Venezuela that the constitution and democracy have triumphed,” Maduro said, addressing the nation.

“We have lost a battle today, but the struggle to build a new society is just beginning,” he said in a televised speech.

It is also likely a reversal of fortune for the economic doctrine of Maduro’s mentor, the iconic Hugo Chavez, who died in March 2013.

Analysts had for the past year predicted that Maduro would lose much political capital and influence in parliament despite banning a number of key opposition figures from standing for election.

Leading anti-government pundit Leopoldo Lopez has been in jail for nearly two years on charges of arson and public incitement.

But in the end it was most likely Venezuela’s spiraling economic crisis that got the better of Maduro and his party.

Since Maduro won an April 2013 election by a margin of only 1.5 per cent, the inflation rate has skyrocketed. When he became president, it stood at 48 per cent.

By February 2014, it jumped to over 68 per cent; with food prices quickly rising street protests broke out.

Since then, the central bank has not released inflation figures but in October, opposition parties said it had reached an annual rate of 180 per cent.

Citizens have complained of a lack in basic amenities such as sugar, milk, and toilet paper, as well as some medicines, saying they have had to stand in long queues or buy overpriced products on the black market. Riots broke out, which Maduro blamed on opposition figures.

The drastic drop in oil prices – by more than 48 per cent in the past year – has exacerbated Maduro’s problems as exports of the energy commodity account for 95 per cent of Venezuela’s economy.

With less cash in its coffers – the strategic foreign reserves have fallen from $24 to $20 billion in recent months – the government has imported less and less commodities.