Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed election victory as results Tuesday showed his leftist party winning a majority of seats in the National Assembly but losing its crushing two-thirds supermajority. The elections were widely seen as a test of strength for the polarising Chavez, whose popularity has waned amid an economic recession, inflation and soaring crime rates in Caracas.

The opposition claimed to have won a majority of popular votes and to have won enough seats to challenge the uncontested control Chavez has exercised over the legislature since 2005. But late Monday Chavez dismissed the "micro" opposition parties that united under a broad coalition, insisting that his United Socialist Party of Venezuela had won a majority of the popular vote. "As always they're lying, manipulating," a defiant Chavez said, in his first news conference since the elections, wearing a tracksuit resembling the yellow, blue and red Venezuelan flag. "There's no doubt that the revolutionary forces won a very important victory on Sunday," Chavez said, referring to the "socialist revolution" he has led in almost 12 years in power. The electoral commission has only released figures for the seats won on Sunday, not votes. Controversial new changes to electoral rules mean Chavez's party can have many more seats than its vote share would imply.