Bloomberg News

             CARACAS -- A higher-than-expected turnout and glitches with a new automated
             polling system delayed returns from Venezuela's regional elections, which are
             expected to reveal the strength of presidential front-runner Hugo Chavez.

             Election results, expected early in the evening, were delayed well into the night
             after the government extended polling hours to allow all voters to cast their ballots.
             Long lines snaked out of many polling places, as the country's 11 million voters
             waited for hours in light showers.

             Polls were supposed to close at 4 p.m. local time, but five hours later a national
             election official said much of the nation was still voting.

             ``Between 25 percent and 30 percent of the electorate is still voting,'' said Miriam
             Kornblith, first vice president of the National Electoral Council. ``We're not going
             to release the results until all polling districts are closed.''

             She gave no indication of when returns would be released.

             The regional elections, coming less than a month before presidential balloting, are
             seen as a proxy vote on the popularity of presidential front-runners Chavez, best
             known for leading two failed coup attempts in 1992, and Henrique Salas Romer,
             his pro-business rival.

             Many of the country's 21,000 polling districts opened later than the 6 a.m.
             scheduled start as some of the new automated polling machines arrived late. In
             other precincts, voting was delayed because officials weren't familiar with how to
             use the machines; it was the first time they were used in a Venezuelan election.

             Still, officials said the chief reason for the delay was a rush of voters, who turned
             out in much higher numbers than the government had expected, easily beating the
             turnout of the 1995 regional elections, when only about 46 percent voted.

             ``It's been a landslide,'' Kornblith said.

             Although officials admitted there were some snafus with voting machines, there
             were no immediate charges of voter fraud or other irregularities.

             Instead, the voting was orderly, if slow. It took voters an hour and a half to cast
             their ballots at Magisterio, the teachers training center, where President Rafael
             Caldera voted.

             Although 70,000 police and soldiers were deployed to make sure the election
             went smoothly, they apparently had little to worry about.

             ``Maturity, not the violence some were expecting, is what we are showing,'' said
             Francisco Natera, president of Fedecamaras, the nation's largest business
             association.

             Venezuelans are electing 23 governors, 48 senators, 189 deputies and 391 state
             legislators. The vote is the first to be held since Venezuela changed its electoral law
             to require that 30 percent of the candidates be women.
 

                               Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald