EspañolFor the second time this year, the government and the opposition within Venezuela faced off on Sunday for support in an electoral setting. In this case, mayoral and council offices were up for election, and 58.9 percent of eligible voters chose to participate.
The Centro Nacional Electoral (CNE) announced results at 10 p.m. VET, with 97.5 percent of the votes accounted for.
The governing party, the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), won the majority of mayoral offices across the nation, 58.5 percent. By comparison, the opposition, the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD), won 15.8 percent. However, the story of the total votes was far different: the PSUV obtained 44.1 percent of the total, and the MUD obtained 41.0 percent.
In terms of the more important, strategic mayoral positions — such as in the capital region — the MUD won the Metropolitan and Sucre districts of Caracas. On the other hand, the PSUV prevailed only in the Libertador municipality of the capital. Maracaibo, the second largest city after Caracas, remained in the hands of the MUD, as with Valencia and Barinas, hometown of former President Chávez.