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VENEZUELA
Figures for Chávez supporters
grow in recount
BY
PASTOR BATISTA—Granma daily special
correspondent—
CARACAS, August 18.— Another and
no less convincing demonstration of popular support
for the Bolivarian project has just been offered
here by the National Electoral Council (CNE), with
figures that while not as yet definite indicate that
59.06% of the votes recounted to date correspond to
the NO option and 40.94% to the YES.
According to Jorge Rodríguez ,
head of the National Electoral Board, that means
that of the votes scrutinized up until now, a total
of 5,553,209 Venezuelans ratified President Hugo
Chávez’ mandate as opposed to 3,349,683 representing
his recall.
He also affirmed that of the one
million-plus manual votes – posted in remote areas
where there were no automatic machines – 897,025
have been counted to date, with 632,744 for the NO
option. Thus of the manual votes scrutinized 70.54%
ratified President Chávez, while 29.46% voted for
him to stand down. This count should be completed in
a few hours and if the present trend continues, the
Venezuelan leader will be re-legitimated by six-plus
million electors in an unobjectionable demonstration
of popular support.
AUDIT BY AND FOR VENEZUELANS
The CNE decision to undertake a
fresh audit (even though the reliability,
seriousness and transparency of the referendum makes
that step totally unnecessary), has not arisen to
please any of the political actors involved, but as
yet another test of confidence for “the Venezuelans
who flocked to vote with passion, civic pride, in
peace and disposed to live in a democracy.”
ATTEMPTED ATTACK ON JIMMY
CARTER
CARACAS, August 18.—A group of
enraged opponents of the Hugo Chávez government
tried to attack ex-president Jimmy Carter in a
restaurant in the capital, PL reports.
The news, circulated today by the
VEA daily, stated that Carter was dining in a
restaurant in El Rosal sector, east of Caracas, at
the invitation of some friends when he was given the
“saucepan banging” treatment by elements of the
opposition defeated in last Sunday’s referendum.
Shortly afterwards, the authors
of the protest tried to physically assault the
former president, who was forced to leave the place
protected by his friends and security personnel, the
newspaper added.
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