Chavez back for six years

Venezuelans overwhelmingly re-elected President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, further extending a presidency that began when he was swept into power eight years ago.

Venezuelans overwhelmingly re-elected President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, further extending a presidency that began when he was swept into power eight years ago. The populist leader will receive another six years in office to broaden his leftist revolution and cement his government as the most defiant anti-Bush administration voice in Latin America.

With 78 per cent of the votes counted, electoral authorities announced Chavez, 52, had secured 61.3 per cent of the vote to 38.4 per cent for Manuel Rosales, whose candidacy united a fractured opposition but had only four months to gather momentum. Chavez8217;s tally presented an insurmountable lead.

Chavez8217;s 8220;Bolivarian revolution8217;8217; is set to last until at least 2013, though the president told reporters on Thursday that a change to the constitution could permit him to rule even longer.

8220;I8217;m not planning to say in the constitution, 8216;Hugo Chavez will remain in the presidency until he dies,8217; because that would be perverse,8217;8217; said Chavez, who is allowed to serve one more term. 8220;It8217;s very different to study the possibility of indefinite re-election. It will be the will of the people.8217;8217;

Authorities with the five-member National Electoral Council said they had not found serious discrepancies in the results. 8220;Everything is perfectly normal in the country,8217;8217; Vicente Diaz, who is considered partial to the opposition, told reporters Sunday night. Observers from the European Union, the Atlanta-based Carter Center and the Organisation of American States monitored the vote and reported only isolated incidents by early Sunday night.

A Chavez victory will further consolidate the tide of leftist politicians who have won office in Latin America in recent years, including a former labour leader in Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Michelle Bachelet, a market-friendly socialist in Chile; and Evo Morales, the indigenous leader of Bolivia. Although Colombia, Peru and Mexico this year elected pro-trade, pro-US presidents, leftist leaders who criticise market reforms and sharply question the Bush administration8217;s policies in the region were elected last month in Nicaragua and Ecuador.

Chavez has said he would ensure Venezuela, which says it has the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, remained a price hawk in the OPEC. He has also said he would solidify Venezuela8217;s relations with Cuba and Iran. Chavez , who survived a 2002 coup the White House tacitly endorsed, often accuses Washington of backing undemocratic opposition groups.

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Chavez has funneled billions of oil dollars into education, health and nutrition programmes. The economy grew 18 per cent in 2004 and 9.3 per cent last year.