AKIPRESS.COM - Venezuelan electoral authorities have confirmed that the opposition has won a key two-thirds majority in parliament.

The National Electoral Council said final results from Sunday's poll gave the opposition 112 seats out of 167, reports BBC.

The opposition can now make sweeping changes, including calling a possible referendum on the leadership of Socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The result is the worst for the Socialist movement founded by late leader Hugo Chavez in 1999.

Jesus Torrealba, the opposition coalition's secretary-general, said the first priority would be to secure the release of jailed opposition leaders and address Venezuela's deep economic crisis.

"The country has a severe, very severe problem in terms of food availability," he said.

The elections were widely seen as a referendum on President Maduro, the handpicked successor of Hugo Chavez, and the governing PSUV's socialist policies.

The opposition accused Mr Maduro's party of mismanaging the economy and of squandering the country's oil wealth.

Venezuela has been hit hard by the continuing low price of oil, its main export. It also has the continent's highest inflation rate.

The opposition also accused the government of increasing authoritarianism.

Earlier this year, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was given a 13-year prison sentence for inciting violence - a charge critics say was politically motivated.