Caracas, Oct 16 (AFP) President Nicolas Maduro'sgovernment won a landslide victory in closely watched regionalelections in Venezuela, according to official results that theopposition said were "suspicious."Maduro's socialist party yesterday won governorships of17 of the 23 states with the opposition Democratic UnionRoundtable (MUD) coalition taking only five, according to theresults announced by the National Elections Council.
The official turnout was 61.14 per cent.
Maduro said his government had scored an "emphaticvictory" over its rivals.
"The opposition has five," Maduro underscored in a speechto supporters, adding that his party could win one furtherstate where the results were still in dispute.
Public opinion surveys had predicted that the oppositionwould win a majority of state governorships despite allegedgovernment dirty tricks to suppress a high turnout.
Yesterday's vote came against the backdrop of anInternational Monetary Fund report in which it seesVenezuela's economic downturn, and the suffering of itspopulation, continuing.
Venezuela "remains in a full-blown economic,humanitarian, and political crisis with no end in sight," theFund said in a report on Latin American economies.
International powers accuse Maduro of dismantlingdemocracy by taking over state institutions in the wake of aneconomic collapse caused by a fall in the price of oil, itsmain source of revenue.
Yesterday's polls were the first contested by theopposition since legislative elections in 2015 that gave it amajority in the National Assembly.
The MUD has seen Maduro's hand strengthened after hefaced down four months of protests that killed 125 people,forming a Constituent Assembly packed with his own allies andwresting legislative power from the opposition-dominatedNational Assembly.
For Maduro, the polls were an opportunity to counterallegations of dictatorship levelled at him at home and abroadafter forming the Constituent Assembly. (AFP)KIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.