http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/international/americas/05venez.htmlDecember 5, 2005
Chávez's Grip Tightens as Rivals Boycott Vote
By JUAN FORERO
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Dec. 4 - Venezuela's firebrand president, Hugo Chávez, took overwhelming control of the National Assembly on Sunday after five major opposition parties boycotted a national election for all 167 congressional seats.
Venezuela's leftist government increased its slight majority to take nearly all the congressional seats, the ruling party said, as up to 75 percent of eligible voters stayed away from the polls.
The outcome will permit the National Assembly to change the Constitution easily, as well as enact a range of major changes supported by Mr. Chávez, in areas ranging from Venezuela's health system to the criminal code.
The withdrawal of the parties also ensured that Venezuela's opposition has, for all practical purposes, ceased to exist in an organized form, paving the way for an easy victory by Mr. Chávez for another six-year term in the election for president late next year. Mr. Chávez, first elected in 1998, has already served longer than any leader of a major Latin American country, except for Fidel Castro of Cuba.
"Chávez would have annihilated them anyway," Alberto Garrido, a critic of the government and an author of several books about the president, said by phone from Caracas. "Now, they are starting from scratch. There are people in the opposition, but the opposition leadership is in tumult, without a strategy. Tomorrow, Monday, they will not know what to do."<snip>
Of some 5,516 candidates running for office, about 556 dropped out - just over 10 percent but representing a vast majority of candidates from five major anti-Chávez parties. The boycott, coupled with heavy rains, prompted anti-government voters like Ángel Rodríguez, 46, a chauffeur, to decide not to vote.
<snip>
Jens Gould contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela, for this article.