Candidates supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have secured control of the national congress, the electoral board said yesterday, after a parliamentary election which opposition leaders boycotted because of what they said was fraud. The electoral board's president, Indira Alfonzo, said in comments broadcast on state television that 67.6% of 5.2 million votes cast in Sunday's election were for pro-Maduro candidates, but only 31% of eligible voters participated in the ballot. The result returns congress - the last state institution not in the hands of the ruling Socialist Party - to Maduro's allies despite an economy in ruins, US sanctions that stifle the OPEC nation's oil exports and the emigration of some 5 million citizens.