Venezuela opposition wins supermajority in National Assembly

Venezuela's opposition won a key two-thirds majority in the National Assembly in legislative voting, according to final results released Tuesday, dramatically strengthening its hand in any bid to wrest power from President Nicolas Maduro after 17 years of socialist rule.

On its website, the National Electoral Council published the tally of results from Sunday's elections showing that two previously undecided races had broken in favor of the opposition, giving them 112 out of 167 seats in the incoming National Assembly. The ruling socialist party and its allies got 55 seats.

The "supermajority" gives the Democratic Unity opposition alliance a strong hand in trying to unseat Maduro, as well as the votes needed to sack Supreme Court justices, initiate a referendum on the president's mandate and even convoke an assembly to rewrite Hugo Chavez's 1999 constitution.

Maduro has urged his supporters to accept Sunday's results, even as he recalled the long history of US-supported coups in Latin America and blamed the "circumstantial" loss on a right-wing "counterrevolution" trying to sabotage Venezuela's oil-dependent economy and destabilize the government.

Hardliners in the opposition seemed similarly entrenched, preferring to talk about ending Maduro's rule before his term ends in 2019 rather than resolving Venezuela's triple-digit inflation, plunging currency and the widespread shortages expected to worsen in January as businesses close for the summer vacation.