CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuela's army and wealthy elite
reacted nervously Monday to a major electoral victory by a leftist coalition
headed by former coup leader Hugo Chavez.
Chavez's Patriotic Pole movement won the largest share of Venezuela's
parliament in nationwide balloting for governors and congressmen, sending
the stock market sharply lower and stirring worries that the army might
start
flexing its muscle.
But millions of Venezuelans, angered over declining living standards, were
elated by Sunday's election results, which gave Chavez a major boost in
his
bid for the presidency in December 6 elections.
'The Venezuelan people have awakened'
"The man you see here is the next president," a confident Chavez told a
television interviewer. "The Venezuelan people have awakened. We are
going to build a new democracy."
Best known for leading a bloody attempt to topple the government in 1992,
political analysts and diplomats now agree that Chavez is the front-runner
for
next month's presidential election.
Analysts said the army paratrooper-turned-politician's strongest support
came from the more populated and poorer areas, where his radical,
anti-corruption message strikes a chord.
"The impression I get is you have a class vote and also a class struggle,"
said
Nicolas Toledo of the local polling firm Consultores 21.
Venezuela controls the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, but
that
has clearly not benefited the majority of its 23 million people. The average
monthly family income for a family of five is around $400.
A setback to traditional parties
Sunday's vote was a devastating setback to Democratic Action and
Copei, the traditional parties that have ruled Venezuela for decades.
Though final results were not available Monday afternoon, the early tally
showed Patriotic Pole winning 34 percent of the congressional seats.
Democratic Action won about 22 percent, and Copei took 11 percent.
Project Venezuela, a new party led by Chavez's main challenger,
Yale-educated businessman Henrique Salas, had about 12 percent.
Venezuelans swamped polling stations to elect 189 lower house members,
48 senators, 23 governors and 391 state assembly members.
Chavez tones down populist rhetoric
Aware that his candidacy has polarized the country, Chavez has toned down
his populist rhetoric in recent months, calling for a version of British
Prime
Minister Tony Blair's Third Way -- a compromise between unfettered
capitalism and socialism.
It's not clear, however, if the business community is buying it. The election
results were received joyously in the hillside slums ringing Caracas, but
ominously in the plush tree-lined neighborhoods of the wealthy.
"If he is the Chavez who most people think he is -- the populist, the Peronist,
the guy who's going to set the clock back -- then this is not only bad
news,
it's disastrous news," said economist Roberto Bottome.
"If on the other hand, he's the Tony Blair who some people think he is,
it's
not bad news," Bottome added. "In the meantime, if I were an investor,
I'd
stay away."
Within the first 15 minutes of trading Monday, the Caracas stock exchange
fell 2.5 percent on news of Chavez's success, and ended even lower, down
3.4 percent for the day.
Opposition may regroup
While strengthening Chavez's presidential prospects, Sunday's vote also
could cause anti-Chavez factions to regroup in a unified alliance, possibly
led
by Project Venezuela's Salas.
Among those most vehemently opposed to Chavez is army chief Gen.
Ruben Rojas Perez, who recently implied the armed forces would seek to
block his rise to power.
"There will surely be problems because of Chavez's conspiratorial past
and
his lack of moral authority to be the commander in chief of the armed
forces," said Gen. Fernando Ochoa Antich, who was defense minister during
Chavez's attempted coup.
Current President Rafael Caldera has been trying to calm the waters by
promising to respect the voters' will. His Convergence Party, which broke
away from Copei five years ago, was not a major player in Sunday's
balloting.
'No reason to live in misery'
As expected, Democratic Action and Copei captured most of Venezuela's
23 governorships on Sunday. But Chavez's coalition won seven races for
governor in states that comprise more than a third of the country's
population. And in a surprise showing, Chavez's father, Hugo de los Reyes
Chavez, was elected governor of the western state of Barinas.
Although the roots of Venezuela's deep economic woes are complex, most
people blame the traditional parties for squandering the country's wealth.
"If you have gold and diamonds in your garden, there is no reason to live
in
misery," said Luis Castillo, a 58-year-old house painter who supports
Chavez.
Carlos Andres Perez, the former president whom Chavez tried to overthrow
six years ago, won a senate seat in his home state of Tachira. Promising
to
oppose a possible Chavez administration, he said Sunday's results "did
not
help but instead aggravated the circumstances in which Venezuela's social
and political life is played out."
While running for the senate, Perez had been under house arrest pending
charges of illegal enrichment. His victory gives him parliamentary immunity
and his freedom.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.