Chavez claims presidential election victory

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared on Sunday that he had won a new term in the presidential election.

Of the 78 percent of votes counted, Chavez won 61 percent, far ahead of his rival Manuel Rosales, according to Tibisay Lucena, head of the elections council.

Rosales has conceded defeat. "We admit that they defeated us today," he told reporters.

The voting started at 6:00 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) in around 11,118 polling stations in all 23 states plus capital Caracas. About 16 million citizens were registered to vote.

Soon after the announcement of the result, Chavez appeared on the balcony of his presidential palace, singing national anthem and addressing his supporters.

Chavez described his victory as a national support for socialism and claimed that it was "another defeat for the devil who wants to dominate the world," apparently referring to the United States.

The president also paid salute to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, another staunching opponent of the United States.

Chavez, candidate for the Fifth Republic Movement, was born on July 28, 1954, in Venezuela's Sabaneta. He graduated from Venezuela's military academy in 1975 with a master's degree in military science and art. He also studied politics at Simon Bolivar University from 1989 to 1990.

He led a failed coup as a paratroop officer to topple former President Carlos Andres Perezand in February 1992 and then was jailed for two years until 1994.

In December 1998, Chavez won the presidency with 56 percent of the votes after campaigning for a broad reform, constitutional changes and a crackdown on corruption.

In 1999, he won Venezuelans' approval in a plebiscite of a new constitution that expands executive powers.

He was re-elected to a six-year term under the new constitution with close to 60 percent of the votes in 2000.

On April 11, 2002, he was ousted in a brief coup by business leaders and dissident military officers. On April 14, military troops loyal to Chavez returned him to power.

Chavez has vowed to push ahead with social programs that have won him applause among the poor Venezuelans who had played a key role in giving him a landslide electoral victory in 1998 and 2000.

Source: Xinhua