The announcement was made by the CNE President Francisco Carrasquero, and it was preceded by a separate announcement by CNE board members Sobella Mejias and Ezequiel Zamora, who cited technical reasons to question the announcement to be made by Carrasquero. Both Mejia and Zamora are believed to be aligned with the opposition.

According to the numbers, obtained from a tally count of 94,49% of ballots from automatic voting machines, the opposition failed to obtain more votes that those who wanted Chavez to stay. The "no" option obtained 4,991,483 votes representing 58.25%. The "yes" option obtained 3,576,517 votes, representing 41.74%.

Manual count of votes from rural and low income urban areas where Chavez has widespread support, and where automatic machines were not used, could increase the President’s margin of victory.

Voters waited in line for up to 10 hours in some cases.

Delays in the annoucement of the results are believed to be caused by intense negotiations between the Carter Center and the Organization of American States (OAS) election observing missions with the opposition coalition Democratic Coordinator to convince them to accept Chavez’s victory.

Martin Sanchez