Chavez allies fall short of two-thirds majority in poll

PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez’s allies won a strong majority in Venezuela’s congress, but lost the two-thirds majority needed to carry out major changes on their own, according to election results released yesterday.

With the vast majority of votes from Sunday’s election counted, Chavez’s socialist party won at least 96 of the 165 seats in the National Assembly, while the opposition coalition won at least 61 seats, National Electoral Council president Tibisay Lucena said.

Chavez’s party had held an overwhelming majority in the outgoing congress because much of the opposition boycotted the past election.