The Jim Bakker Show

Russia-hosted summit could be decisive for Syria peace: Erdogan

By Denis Pinchuk

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – A three-way summit on Wednesday between the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey could produce decisive steps toward ending the bloodshed in Syria, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said at the start of their talks.

The summit, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is a rare occasion bringing together the leaders of Russia and Iran — who back Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad — around a table with Erdogan, who has supported Assad’s opponents.

In opening remarks at the summit in the southern Russian resort of Sochi, Putin, Erdogan and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani spoke of an opening for peace in Syria now that Islamic State has been pushed out of its last major stronghold there.

“The point we have reached is important, but not enough,” Erdogan told the gathering, also attended by military commanders and foreign ministers from the three countries.

“It is critical for all parties to contribute to a permanent and acceptable political solution for the people of Syria,” he said. “This summit is aimed at results, I believe critical decisions will be taken.”

As a prelude to the summit, Putin earlier this week hosted Assad at his residence in Sochi. It was the only time the Syrian leader is known to have left Syria since his last visit to Russia, two years ago.

Putin also made telephone calls in the past 24 hours to other leaders with influence in Syria, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, as part of Moscow’s drive to build an international consensus over a peace deal to end the six-year conflict.

“A NEW STAGE”

“We can say with certainty that we have reached a new stage, opening up the possibility to launch a real political process towards a peace deal,” Putin told the gathering.

“Compromises and concessions will be needed on all sides … including (from) the Syrian government,” Putin said.

He said the focus of peace efforts should be the convocation of a congress bringing together all of Syria’s ethnic groups.

Russia has offered to host such a congress in Sochi, but attempts to agree a date have so far foundered, in part because Turkey raised objections to the presence of some Kurdish groups.

Iran’s Rouhani used his remarks at the summit to rail against the presence of foreign forces in Syria, an apparent reference to the United States and Tehran’s arch regional rival Saudi Arabia, which alongside Turkey have backed Assad’s foes.

“There is no excuse for the presence of foreign troops in Syria without the approval of its legitimate government,” Rouhani said.

“The Syrian nation will not allow any interference of foreigners in their state affairs and will confront any move that harms Syria’s integrity, independence and unity,” he said.

Iran’s military is also present in Syria, alongside Russian troops and Hezbollah, the pro-Iran Lebanese militia. They say that does not amount to foreign interference because they are in Syria at Assad’s invitation.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Parisa Hafezi in ANKARA; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Syrian opposition conference starts in Riyadh after key resignations

By Stephen Kalin

RIYADH (Reuters) – A Syrian opposition meeting began in Riyadh on Wednesday in a bid to unify the group’s position ahead of peace talks backed by the United Nations to end the country’s six-year civil war.

Saudi Arabia backs the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) group whose leader, former Syrian prime minister Riyad Hijab, resigned on Monday without explanation.

The summit comes after a surprise visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Russia a day earlier to meet President Vladimir Putin, who later discussed the conflict with U.S. President Donald Trump and other Middle East leaders.

Assad has made major gains against opposition forces and Islamic State militants with the help of Russia as well as Iran, the arch-rival of Saudi Arabia, which backs Syrian rebels and had long maintained that Assad should have no role in any transition to bring the war there to an end.

U.N. peace talks mediator Staffan de Mistura urged the opposition figures gathered at a five-star hotel in Riyadh to have the “hard discussions” necessary to reach a “common line”.

“A strong unified team is a creative partner in Geneva and we need that, one who can actually explore more than one way to arrive to the goals that we need to have,” he said in opening remarks.

It was not immediately clear how Hijab’s absence would affect the talks. Several opposition figures said he had taken an uncompromising line that rejected a role for Assad in a U.N. sponsored Geneva based peace process.

Some opposition members have hinted that the new communique would drop the long standing demand by the Riyadh based main opposition, referring to the next round of U.N.-sponsored talks.

The summit, which Saudi Arabia called “expanded”, was opened to more than 140 opposition figures from the Turkey-based coalition and mainstream Free Syrian Army factions as well as independents including about a dozen women.

The HNC has represented the Syrian opposition at previous Geneva talks, while a number of other political opposition groups and figures backed by other countries including Russia and Egypt also exist.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the only solution to the conflict was through a consensus that would achieve the demands of the Syrian people.

“There is no solution to the crisis without a Syrian consensus that would achieve the demands of the Syrian people on the basis of Geneva 1 and (U.N. Security Council) resolution 2254,” he said.

The Moscow group of Syrian political activists led by a former deputy prime minister Qadri Jamil said they turned down an invitation to attend the conference, accusing the members of the main HNC opposition of thwarting efforts to set up a single delegation.

“We consider the effort of some of the opposition to exploit the meeting as a platform for their own political ends goes against Saudi Arabia’s efforts to form a unified delegation,” Jamil said in a statement.

Russia has led an campaign to push for the merger of the Moscow group into a single delegation with the HNC. The main opposition body says it is a stooge of Moscow to sow divisions within their ranks.

The opposition meeting is set to last until Friday, when a joint statement is expected. Several rounds of U.N. talks in Geneva between the Damascus government and the opposition have made little progress since the Syria conflict erupted in 2011.

(Reporting by Dahlia Nehme and Reuters TV Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi; Writing by Stephen Kalin and Sami Aboudi; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Turkish nationalist opposition seeks to secure parliamentary future

By Ercan Gurses

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s nationalist opposition will seek support from the ruling AK Party to lower a 10 percent threshold to enter parliament, a party official said on Thursday, in a sign that a new rival political party could shake up Turkish politics.

Former interior minister Meral Aksener broke with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and formed her own Iyi Parti (“Good Party”) last month, posing a challenge to the MHP and to President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara, MHP Deputy Chairman Semih Yalcin said his party, which could fall below the threshold if Iyi Parti’s apparent early popularity is sustained, would push to lower the barrier.

“The MHP has preparations regarding the (threshold) electoral law, and this will be discussed depending on the offers we receive (from the AK Party),” Yalcin said, a day after MHP leader Devlet Bahceli called the threshold “too harsh”.

Since 1982, political parties in Turkey have needed to win at least 10 percent of votes to be represented in the 550-seat parliament. The country faces presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019.

A recent poll suggested that Aksener’s party could overtake the main opposition secular CHP and push the MHP and pro-Kurdish opposition HDP out of parliament by forcing their share of the vote below the current threshold. It would also cut into the AK Party share of the vote.

The Islamist-rooted AK Party, led by Erdogan, is a broad organization, counting among its ranks nationalists and religious conservatives.

“Will they (Iyi) win 20 percent or one percent? We will see… Everyone will see how they hold up after they stand in front of the people in 2019,” Yalcin said of the Iyi Parti.

The MHP won as much as 18 percent of votes in a 1999 parliamentary election but slipped below the threshold at 9.5 percent in 2002. It has exceeded 10 percent since then.

Under an executive presidential system approved in an April referendum, the president will be given expanded powers. The number of MPs will be increased from 550 to 600, while the parliament’s authority will be reduced.

Critics argue that lowering the threshold, and the resulting change in the composition of parliament, would not have any great impact under the new presidential system.

The AK Party, founded by Erdogan, has dominated Turkish politics since 2002, holding a majority in parliament for 15 years. After winning almost 50 percent of votes in the latest parliamentary elections in 2015, Erdogan and party officials said they aimed to win more than half the votes in 2019.

(Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Ece Toksabay)

Major Venezuelan opposition parties to boycott local polls

By Andreina Aponte and Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) – Three of Venezuela’s largest opposition parties vowed on Monday to boycott mayoral polls later this year in protest at an election system they say is biased in favor of President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling socialists.

The multi-party Democratic Unity coalition has had a tough 2017, first failing to bring down Maduro in four months of protests that led to 125 deaths, then losing surprisingly to the Socialist Party in a gubernatorial election earlier this month.

That has left the opposition weakened and divided, and Maduro strengthened, despite growing foreign pressure on his government over alleged rights abuses and corruption, and an unprecedented economic crisis that has millions skipping food.

Three heavyweight movements in the opposition – Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action – announced on Monday they did not trust the government-leaning election board sufficiently to participate in the municipal polls in December.

Justice First leader Julio Borges, who also heads the opposition-led congress, said authorities cheated in the 2013 presidential election, denied Venezuelans a recall referendum last year, and rigged the Oct. 15 gubernatorial vote.

So instead of going into another “manipulated” vote, the opposition should focus on demanding reforms to the election board in anticipation of next year’s presidential poll, he said.

“The objective remains getting Nicolas Maduro out of power, and in this struggle, the world is with us,” he told reporters.

To the surprise of some, the Democratic Action party also joined the boycott. Its candidates won four governorships in October’s vote and then infuriated many opposition supporters by swearing loyalty to a pro-Maduro legislative superbody.

MADURO: ‘BALLOTS, NOT BULLETS’

Opposition supporters have been split over participating in elections this year. Some say it is the only way to show they are a majority and undermine Maduro, while a growing number argue there is no point in fighting a “dictator” via a system rigged in his favor.

They are pinning their hopes on international action, including U.S. sanctions against Maduro’s government.

Maduro, whose personal popularity has plunged since his 2013 election due to food shortages and runaway inflation, said “sabotage” and “insurrection” were being planned against the mayoral votes.

“I declare myself in battle,” the 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez said in a meeting with governors on Monday.

“Those who attack the election system must pay.”

Opposition leaders say the government has long been rigging elections by gross abuse of state funds in favor of socialist candidates, and dirty tricks such the last-minute moving of vote centers in opposition areas for the October ballot.

They have also presented some allegations of ballot-rigging.

However, Maduro insists Venezuela’s system is entirely trustworthy and impossible to hack. It has received international praise in the past, although it was slammed over July’s vote for the Constituent Assembly superbody.

Maduro says the street protests earlier this year were a mask for a U.S.-backed coup plot, and accuses opponents of wanting to oust him by undemocratic means.

“Venezuelans want ballots, not bullets,” said Maduro.

(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Rosalba O’Brien)

Venezuelan anti-Maduro governor sacked, opposition in chaos

By Isaac Urrutia and Eyanir Chinea

MARACAIBO/CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – The newly elected opposition governor of Venezuela’s western Zulia state was dismissed on Thursday by the pro-government local state legislature, adding to disarray among foes of the ruling socialists.

The sacking of Juan Pablo Guanipa, one of five opposition governors in Venezuela’s 23 states, came after he refused to swear loyalty to an all-powerful national legislative superbody aligned with President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling socialists.

“They held a secret, express session to remove him,” Guanipa’s spokeswoman Erika Gutierrez told Reuters of the morning meeting of Zulia’s state legislature.

Venezuela’s opposition Democratic Unity coalition, which groups several dozen anti-Maduro parties, has been in crisis since a surprise defeat at this month’s state elections.

Despite polls showing it would win a comfortable majority due to widespread public anger over Venezuela’s brutal economic crisis, the opposition only took five states compared to 18 for Maduro’s Socialist Party candidates.

Opposition leaders blamed dirty tricks by the government, including the last-minute moving of many vote centers in opposition areas, along with abstention by supporters disillusioned at the failure of protests earlier this year.

Driving home its advantage, the government said only governors who recognize the supremacy of the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly could take office.

Four opposition governors did that this week, sparking recriminations and bickering within the coalition, but Guanipa said he would never “kneel before the dictatorship.”

“This is an assault on the will of the people,” he tweeted after his removal on Thursday, denouncing a “coup” in the oil-rich state on the border with Colombia.

OPPOSITION IN-FIGHTING

Prior to this week, the opposition, along with various major foreign nations including the United States, had refused to recognize the Constituent Assembly.

Elected in July after four months of anti-Maduro protests, the body has overridden the opposition-run national congress.

One major opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, said he would no longer participate in the coalition while Henry Ramos, leader of the Democratic Action party whose four governors swore themselves in before the assembly, was a member.

Capriles’ Justice First party, and the Popular Will party of detained opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, have called for a complete reformulation of the opposition grouping.

Officials from Maduro down have been rubbing their hands in glee at the opposition implosion, and cheekily urging the controversial Ramos – a polarizing figure unpopular among young opposition militants – to stand for president in 2018.

“Backstabbing has broken out in the opposition, all against all,” crowed Maduro earlier this week.

The Constituent Assembly also announced on Thursday local mayoral elections would be held in December, giving the opposition a short time-frame to develop strategy.

Popular Will has already said it plans to boycott that vote.

Young protesters, who saw hundreds of their fellow demonstrators jailed, injured or even killed in anti-Maduro street protests earlier this year, are disgusted by what for them is now a bleak political scenario.

More than 125 people, including supporters of both sides plus security officials and bystanders, died in four months of unrest that Maduro said amounted to a U.S.-backed coup attempt.

“Let the people continue speaking loud and clear in defense of peace, sovereignty and the sacred right to self-determination,” Constituent Assembly head Delcy Rodriguez said, announcing the December municipal vote that the socialists now expect to win handily given the opposition’s disillusionment.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; writing by Andrew Cawthorne; editing by David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman)

Former Turkish minister launches party to challenge Erdogan

By Ercan Gurses

ANKARA (Reuters) – A prominent Turkish nationalist politician and former minister announced on Wednesday she was forming a new party which could pose a significant challenge to President Tayyip Erdogan in elections due within two years.

Former interior minister Meral Aksener, who unsuccessfully opposed Erdogan’s drive for greater presidential powers in a referendum last April, said Turkey needed change after nearly 15 years of rule by his AK Party.

Her Iyi Parti (Good Party) is seen by many in Turkey as potentially one of the strongest challengers to Erdogan in presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2019, but it starts out with only a fraction of the AK Party’s support.

Just five members of the 550-seat parliament have joined the new party, although pollsters say it could win over supporters of several parties including the conservative and Islamic-rooted AK Party as well as secular or nationalist groups.

“Turkey and its people are tired, the state is worn down, and public order is unraveling. There is no way other than the changing of the political atmosphere,” Aksener said at a ceremony in Ankara to mark the launch of her party.

“We are that way out, you are that way out. That road is the 80 million strong Turkish nation” she said, standing in front of the logo of her party – a yellow sun shining in a blue sky. “Our people are clearly saying they want … a new government.”

Aksener was expelled last year from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the smallest of three opposition parties in parliament, after launching a failed bid to unseat party leader Devlet Bahceli, whose support helped Erdogan to a narrow victory in a referendum that expanded his authority.

Since her expulsion, the 61-year old Aksener has become one of the most prominent voices in the country, frequently criticizing Erdogan and the government.

“BIG CHANGES”

The Iyi Party could take more than a tenth of the AK Party support, which stands at over 40 percent, said Hakan Bayrakci of SONAR pollsters. It could also erode the support base of nationalist MHP and the secularist CHP parties, he said.

“Meral Aksener’s party will lead to big changes in Turkey’s political atmosphere,” Bayrakci told Reuters. “This may not be immediate, but in three to five months, I believe this shift will be visible.”

Erdogan’s AK Party won just under 50 percent of votes in the last parliamentary election, in November 2015, and he has told supporters it is aiming for more than half the votes in 2019.

Mehmet Ali Kulat from polling company Mak Danismanlik, which is seen as close to the AK Party, said the Iyi Party currently had the support of around 5 percent of voters.

“It looks like Aksener’s party can get votes from angry voters,” Kulat said. “Their real strength will come out in the long term.”

Aksener said many members of her party wanted her to stand as its presidential candidate in the 2019 election, and criticized what she described as an erosion of rights in Turkey.

“Democracy is under threat and the government’s justice is above all else. It is evident that society is at a political standstill,” Aksener said.

Since a failed military coup last year, in which more than 240 people were killed, Turkish authorities have detained more than 50,000 people and suspended 150,000 people including teachers, soldiers, journalists and lawyers.

Aksener said her party aimed to raise the average length of education in Turkey from seven years to 11 years, and promised to bring Turkey into the world’s top 20 countries for education. It currently lies around 50th in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

In previous weeks, several members from the MHP and the secular main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have quit their parties to join Aksener, who has said her party’s doors were open to anyone “willing to walk with their cause”.

“We have hopes and dreams. We want a rich Turkey, we have power. We want a just Turkey and we have that power. We want a free Turkey and we have our rights,” she said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans and Robin Pomeroy)

Venezuelan opposition disarray heaps pain on protesters

By Andreina Aponte and Anggy Polanco

CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (Reuters) – With some nursing wounds, others jailed and many heading abroad, Venezuela’s young opposition supporters are demoralized by the ruling socialists’ shock election win this month, after prolonged protests failed to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Having for months led rallies and battles against Maduro’s security forces in which scores died, youth demonstrators reluctantly abandoned the streets as the opposition turned its attention to the Oct. 15 gubernatorial vote.

Though the opposition looked set to win comfortably due to public anger over food and medicine shortages, plus soaring inflation, the government took 18 of 23 governorships.

That left thousands of young protesters furious and disillusioned with opposition leadership. Many had vigorously opposed participating in the election because it would legitimize what they see as a dictatorship.

“We have been betrayed,” said graphic designer Manuel Melo, 21, who lost a kidney when hit by a water cannon jet.

“The political opposition does not represent us,” he added, in his small bedroom in a poor neighborhood of the teeming capital Caracas. A stylized picture of a heart emblazoned one wall of the room, while a gas mask, used to protect him from tear gas during the unrest, adorned the other.

Melo and many others now see the protests, which left 125 people dead and thousands wounded or in jail, as a waste of time.

They have little stomach to return to the fight and view the leaders of the opposition Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition as traitors for abandoning the streets in favor of a ballot they believe was rigged by the pro-Maduro election board.

Their disillusionment heightened this week when four of the five winning opposition governors with the Democratic Action party broke ranks with the coalition to swear themselves in before an all-powerful legislative superbody that Maduro’s foes had vowed never to recognize.

That set off a round of unseemly in-fighting and recriminations within the opposition, with heavyweight leader Henrique Capriles saying he would abandon the coalition while Democratic Action leader Henry Ramos remained a member.

“I’m totally dejected because after all these protests, the election, nothing has changed,” said student Javier Lara, 18, who watched a fellow protester die in unrest in the volatile city of San Cristobal on the border with Colombia.

Like many young Venezuelans, Lara now plans to head abroad as soon as possible – to Peru in his case.

“We’ve been sold out by the opposition,” he said.

“ALL OVER THE PLACE”

The Democratic Unity coalition finds itself in crisis.

Its strategy of contesting the gubernatorial elections backfired spectacularly.

In the wake of defeat, stunned opposition leaders could not even agree whether to pursue fraud allegations, with some refusing to accept the election results and others publicly admitting defeat.

A breakup, or reformulation of the coalition, now looks inevitable, with a new strategy and possibly fresh blood needed for the 2018 presidential election.

Though polls routinely showed the opposition had majority support, many Venezuelans view their leaders as an elitist group out-of-touch with their problems.

“The MUD is all over the place,” said Antonio Ledezma, a veteran politician and former opposition mayor who is under house arrest. “The international community deserves an explanation of our behavior.”

Some young opposition supporters are seeking inspiration away from traditional leaders. They voice admiration for Lorenzo Mendoza, a billionaire businessman who has shied away from politics, and Juan Carlos Caguaripano, a former National Guard captain who led an August attack on a military base.

Heaping humiliation on the opposition, Maduro says daily in speeches that “peace” has won and a U.S.-backed plot to oust him has been defeated.

To stoke his foes’ disarray, Maduro has urged Democratic Action leader Ramos – a hate figure for some younger opposition supporters – to stand in the next presidential vote.

“Get ready for 2018, I’m waiting for you!” Maduro said this week, exulting in the opposition’s “chaos”, “back-stabbing” and “divisionism”.

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta and Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)

Leaders of Venezuela’s bruised opposition to travel abroad to denounce ‘voting fraud’

By Alexandra Ulmer and Corina Pons

CARACAS (Reuters) – Key members of Venezuela’s opposition, divided and dispirited after losing gubernatorial elections over the weekend, will travel abroad to denounce what it says is a “fraudulent” voting system under leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

Congress president Julio Borges said in a press conference on Thursday that the opposition coalition will try to stir up international support, which could result in further sanctions against Maduro’s administration.

His unpopular government unexpectedly swept to victory in Sunday’s regional vote, pocketing 18 of 23 states in the midst of a debilitating economic crisis that has millions skipping meals as soaring inflation destroys salaries.

Polls had forecast the opposition easily beating the ruling socialists. Maduro’s rivals say a mix of dirty tricks, like moving hundreds of voting centers in opposition areas at the last minute and including the names of opposition politicians who lost in primaries on ballots, worked against them.

“We made a huge effort, we aimed to overcome all the obstacles, and what the government did was upgrade its fraud and its cheating,” said Borges, adding that politicians were due to travel to fellow Latin American countries and other supportive nations shortly.

“We have the full records of this electoral process and we’re going to submit them to various international bodies, so that … they can be audited,” added Borges, who did not provide further details on the trips.

OPPOSITION FRAYING

While the opposition first cried fraud, without providing proof, it later scaled back its accusations and is now focusing on the minerals-rich state of Bolivar where it says its losing candidate was robbed of decisive votes.

Maduro blasted his opponents as sore losers who cry fraud when convenient. On Thursday, he inaugurated Hector Rodriguez, a rising star in the Socialist Party, as governor of Miranda state in a ceremony filled with song and dance.

Opposition politicians have acknowledged that demoralization in their own ranks hurt turnout. Many opposition supporters are exhausted after four months of protests earlier this year and were loath to participate in what some saw as a rigged vote that would legitimize Maduro as a dictator.

They were even more downbeat after the vote, however, as it casts doubt on whether they can remove the ruling Socialist Party in next year’s presidential election.

“The government’s handling of (Sunday’s) vote suggests that it is not even willing to entertain anything close to free and fair presidential elections in 2018, even if it prompts growing international isolation, renewed unrest, and increased outward migration,” consultancy Eurasia wrote in a note to clients this week.

(Additional reporting by Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Venezuela opposition refuses swearing in, small protest breaks out

General view of a session of the National Constituent Assembly during swearing in ceremony for newly elected governors at Palacio Federal Legislativo, in Caracas, Venezuela October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello

By Girish Gupta and Maria Ramirez

CARACAS/PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition refused on Wednesday to swear in newly-elected governors before a pro-government legislative superbody it deems unconstitutional, as a small protest broke out in southern Bolivar state over fraud allegations.

The pro-government electoral council announced in the middle of the night that the ruling socialists had won the Bolivar governorship, meaning President Nicolas Maduro’s government took 18 of 23 states in Sunday’s vote.

Polls had put the opposition far ahead, and anti-Maduro politicians have alleged a litany of dirty tricks including switching electoral centers to dangerous areas at the eleventh hour and gross abuse of state resources.

However, they have failed to give evidence of ballot-tampering, and some opposition candidates have conceded they lost due to high abstention in their demoralized ranks.

Still, the disparate opposition coalition said its five winning candidates would not be sworn in by the controversial legislative superbody known as the Constituent Assembly.

“The governors-elect will only be sworn in as established in the constitution and the laws of the Republic,” the Democratic Unity coalition said in a statement on Wednesday.

Leftist Maduro has previously said that governors not sworn in by the pro-government legislative body will not be allowed to take their posts in a country reeling from widespread food and medicine shortages, a collapsing currency and soaring inflation.

He described Venezuela’s electoral system as the world’s most secure and slammed U.S. President Donald Trump and other foreign leaders who questioned the veracity of the vote.

BOLIVAR FLASHPOINT

Bolivar became a flashpoint after the electoral council briefly showed the opposition winning on its web site Sunday night before proclaiming the Socialist Party candidate as winner in the early hours of Wednesday.

Opposition candidate Andres Velasquez accused the electoral council of invalidating some ballots cast for him.

Pockets of his supporters protested outside the electoral board’s offices in state capital Ciudad Bolivar, with some clashes breaking out on Monday and Tuesday. Some 50 people rallied on Wednesday, though the protest quickly fizzled.

“I am going to demonstrate to the world that this electoral process is fraudulent,” Velasquez told local radio in Bolivar, home to many of Venezuela’s gold and diamond mines.

However, nationwide protest like those that rocked Venezuela for four months earlier this year are not expected, given fatigue and disappointment among demonstrators.

The perennially divided opposition is in disarray after Sunday’s election, with some leaders calling fraud and others conceding defeat, often in uncoordinated press statements.

Sunday’s election has left the socialists more confident of winning a presidential vote expected in late 2018.

(Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Marguerita Choy)

Venezuela’s Maduro defends disputed vote, opposition divided

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Alexandra Ulmer and Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro defended Venezuela’s “secure” election system on Tuesday as opponents struggled to present a united front over allegations of fraud in a nationwide vote surprisingly won by the ruling socialists.

Despite widespread anger over economic hardship, the Socialist Party confounded opinion polls to take 17 of 23 governorships in Sunday’s election.

Stunned by the defeat that undermines their aim to win the presidency in 2018, the opposition Democratic Unity coalition refused to acknowledge the results and called the election rigged, as did the United States.

Though the coalition has complained of an unfair playing field – from abuse of state resources to last-minute moving of vote centers away from opposition strongholds – it has not given detailed evidence of ballot-tampering.

Some opposition figures have acknowledged abstention by their supporters – disillusioned by the failure of street protests to dislodge Maduro earlier this year – was a big factor.

Two losing opposition candidates, Henri Falcon in Lara state and Alejandro Feo La Cruz in Carabobo, have conceded defeat, breaking with the official coalition position.

Both criticized “irregularities” in the vote but also lamented many demoralized opposition supporters stayed at home.

“We need courage to recognize truth in adversity,” said Falcon.

The strongest criticism of Sunday’s vote came from Washington, which slammed Maduro’s “dictatorship.” Several European nations also expressed concern, while 12 countries in the Americas from the so-called Lima Group condemned “obstacles, intimidation, manipulation and irregularities”.

Washington is considering further sanctions on Venezuela, after various measures against top officials and the economy earlier this year, while the European Union is mulling the same.

Government leaders have smarted at fraud accusations.

“Venezuela’s election system is the most secure and audited in the world,” Maduro said on Tuesday. “President Donald Trump, I am not a dictator; I am a humble worker … I have a moustache and look like Stalin, but I’m not him.”

The Venezuelan leader invited EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to visit or receive him in Brussels to “open their eyes,” and told “stupid” Canada to stop meddling.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza later said on Twitter that Maduro had recalled Venezuela’s ambassador to Canada for talks.

‘WE WILL NOT KNEEL’

Heaping further humiliation on Venezuela’s opposition, the governors were due to be sworn in on Tuesday by a new legislative superbody elected controversially in July.

The opposition boycotted that vote and has refused to recognize the entirely pro-government Constituent Assembly, which supersedes all institutions including the opposition-controlled congress.

The opposition’s five governors-elect planned to boycott the swearing-in ceremony, defying Maduro’s threat to bar them from office for failing to accept the assembly as a higher authority.

“We will not kneel to anyone,” said Juan Pablo Guanipa, who won the oil-rich western Zulia state.

Despite food shortages, runaway inflation and a tanking currency, Venezuela’s government retains significant bastions of support, especially in poorer, rural parts of the country.

In his news conference, Maduro said the socialists also won Bolivar state, which would take its total to 18 governorships versus five for the opposition.

The government won a total of 54 percent of the votes overall, he added. The election board has not confirmed the Bolivar result or the overall vote figures.

With the opposition coalition’s dozens of parties arguing over whether there was fraud, what went wrong, and where to go next, it will need to regroup and map strategy quickly heading into the 2018 presidential campaign.

Its very future may even be in doubt, since many young activists who took to the streets for four straight months of protests and pitched battles with security forces earlier this year feel betrayed by their leaders.

The unrest killed at least 125 people.

Maduro has long accused opposition leaders of being behind violence, and on Tuesday called the new opposition governor of Zulia state a “fascist” while accusing his counterpart in Tachira of links to Colombian “paramilitaries.”

The election aftermath appears to have sunk a government-opposition mediation effort that began last month in the Dominican Republic. Even though Maduro wants to resuscitate the talks, the opposition coalition has ruled that out.

“We are the majority, the dictatorship is more-and-more illegitimate, popular and global condemnation grows daily against this regime,” it said in a communique late on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas, Tibisay Romero in Valencia and Helen Murphy in Bogota; Editing by Tom Brown)

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