Chavez Victory thoroughly Confirmed
Preliminary reports of the recent Venezuelan elections, supported in new information by electoral authorities, show on Thursday the Republic s President Hugo Chavez as winner.

The most recent figures of the National Electoral Council (CNE), with 98.29 percent of counted votes, grant the head of State 7,274,331 votes, or 62.87 percent.

Chavez main opposition candidate Manuel Rosales has 4,266,974 votes, equivalent to 36.88 percent.

When there are still 1.71 percent of votes left to count, Chavez difference surpasses three million votes, about 26 percent.

CNE authorities indicated that pending materials correspond to diplomatic mission abroad, because the country has only received 63 votes from over 200 distributed.

Other aspirants were Luis Reyes, third, with 4,793 votes, 0.4 percent, followed by Venezuela da Silva, 3,960 votes and Carmelo Romano, 3,716 votes.

As of political organizations, the Movimiento V Republica party, member of the Bloc for Change, is considered the country s main force with 4,822,171 votes, 41.67 percent.