Venezuela election

A short post.

Venezuela held a parliamentary election on the 6th. The final results are becoming concrete, and are good news for those who dislike Hugo Chavez.

MUD, the anti-chavez alliance has managed to win 110 seats, while PSUV, the party of Chavez, has won 55 seats. 2 seats are yet to be declared.

Despite being described as a right-wing alliance, MUD is actually a huge union of over a dozen parties. In the outgoing parliament, the alliance held 64 seats, 45 of those seats (over 70%) were held by 4 parties. Looking at those 45 seats...

6 were held by COPEI. COPEI is a christian democratic party, and as such, is centre-right.

11 were held by Justice First, another centre-right party.

13 were held by Democratic Action, a member of Socialist International, and a centre-left party.

15 were held by A New Era, another centre-left party.

The smaller parties held a similar distribution. On the whole, the alliance is fairly centrist, but contains a wide range of views.


There are a few important points to take away from this election

1 - This is a defeat of PSUV, and President Maduro, the successor to Chavez.

2 - This is a reaction to the economic difficulties in the country.

3 - The election was less "won" and more "lost", it was a desire for change.

4 - There is far more going on than I've been able to go into here.