President Hugo Chavez, despite an intensifying battle with cancer, tightened his grip on Venezuela, with the opposition suffering a blow and losing several governorships in state races.

Chavez’s top rival, Henrique Capriles, survived his own tough test, winning re-election as Miranda state governor.

Chavez’s party gained in four other states, yesterday said electoral officials in this OPEC nation with the world’s top proven oil reserves.

The prominent opposition leader allowed that the losses were a “tough moment” for Venezuela’s opposition.

“Our (opposition candidates) have lost some ground. But they are no less leaders than they were yesterday,” Capriles said.

“We are going to reach the dream that we have. This is a tough moment, but there are opportunities in every tough moment.”

In the country’s 23 states, the socialist ruling party won 20 of the top state posts while the opposition held onto three including Miranda, the electoral council said.

The opposition had held seven state governorships before the vote.

The elections were overshadowed by the health of Chavez, who was improving and already “giving instructions” from his bed in Havana as he continues to recover from cancer surgery, a Venezuelan cabinet member said earlier.

Chavez is due to be sworn in for a third presidential term on January 10, but the country is now on tenterhooks to see if the outspoken, formerly tireless leader will remain their president, become incapacitated, or worse.

He has named foreign minister and vice president Nicolas Maduro as both his temporary replacement and hand-picked successor.

Maduro declared the vote “a resounding defeat” for the opposition, in a telephone interview on state television.

Chavez’s “people here reached out with a huge act of love,” he said.

Earlier, Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza, who is in Cuba with Chavez, 58, said the president was recovering well from his surgery.

“As of yesterday, El Comandante had already resumed communicating with us, giving instructions, governing in fact, giving instructions to be implemented in our country,” Arreaza, husband of Chavez’s eldest daughter, added in a phone call broadcast on state television.

“He continues to recover, positively, day after day, hour after hour,” he said.