Venezuelan ruling party loses majority of unicameral National Assembly

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• published: 07 Dec 2015
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Opposition coalition the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) won 99 out of the 167 seats of the National Assembly during the polling on December 6 across Venezuela, with 96.03 percent of the votes counted, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE). (Soundbite) Tibisay Lucena, CNE President “We congratulate the people of Venezuela for this exemplary journey, where Venezuela and Venezuelans expressed and made their decision about the choice of their representatives to the National Assembly.” The ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) secured 46 seats, losing its long-held majority of the uni-chamber legislature. The rest 22 seats waited to be charged. (Soundbite) Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan President “I would say today the economic war has triumphed. A strategy prevailed to undermine the collective confidence in a national project.” Media reports widely believed that soaring inflation and extreme shortage of commodities commanded the election results. The PSUV government became incapable sustaining its populism policy as the oil price kept plummeting in the past year. More than 95 percent of Venezuela’s foreign exchanges came from oil export.