Venezuela: Chávez wins

President Hugo Chávez won re-election on Sunday, defeating challenger Henrique Capriles, Venezuela's electoral council said.

With most votes counted, Chávez had more than 54% of the vote, and Capriles had 45%, National Electoral Council president Tibisay Lucena said. She said 81% of the nearly 19 million registered voters cast ballots.

It was Chávez's third re-election victory in nearly 14 years in office. The victory gives Chávez another six-year term to cement his legacy and press more forcefully the anti-austerity pro-worker program in the country which many claim to now have the world's largest proven oil reserves.

Fireworks exploded in downtown Caracas, and Chávez's supporters celebrated waving flags and jumping for joy outside the presidential palace.

Chávez won more than 7.4 million votes, beating Capriles by more than 1.2 million votes.

According to the United Nations, since Chávez first took office poverty fell to 50 percent at the end of 2011. Extreme poverty declined to 8.5 percent from about 20 percent over the same period. Venezuela has the lowest level of inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Chávez's support has been achieved by diverting billions of dollars of oil revenues into house-building and other social missions, including education and health and pensions for the elderly to stipends for low-income single mothers.

Chávez's win will probably mean more foreign investment from politically allied countries such as China, Russia, Iran and Belarus, while Western investors are more cautious. Relations with Washington are also likely to remain on edge, though Venezuelan oil has continued to flow to the United States over the years despite the diplomatic tension.

In the past foreign oil firms were paying only 3% royalties to the government, but Chávez pushed this up to 16%. He also helped to raise the value of the output from the Orinoco Belt by relabelling it as valuable heavy crude instead of cheap bitumin or tar, as it had previously been priced.

Some accuse the US and multinationals of trying to influence the presidential campaign. "Transnationals want control of the oil here. They want the submission of Latin America to supply the market needs of the US," said Nicmer Evans, a political science professor at the Central University of Venezuela.

Wall Street had been hoping for a Capriles win, so prices of Venezuelan bonds are predicted to dip on Chávez's win.