With 58% of the vote, Hugo Chavez triumphantly defeats the bid to recall him as President: Venezuelans have voted to keep Hugo Chávez as their president, electoral authorities and international observers said today. But a vocal opposition movement refused to accept that a vast majority of the electorate sided with the firebrand leader in a recall election the day before. The National Electoral Council president, Francisco Carrasquero, announced at 4 a.m. that Mr. Chávez had won in a landslide after 18 hours of voting on Sunday, securing the backing of 58 percent of voters compared to 42 percent against him. "There is a clear difference in favor of the government of President Chávez," former President Jimmy Carter said. Mr. Carter, who heads the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which monitored the election with the Organization of American States, held a joint press conference with the OAS's secretary general, César Gaviria. Looks like Chavez's enemies will just have to go back to trying to take him out the old-fashioned way.