http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/02/200921602959722265.html
Monday, February 16, 2009
07:43 Mecca time, 04:43 GMT
Chavez wins Venezuela referendum
Chavez celebrated from his palace balcony in front of
thousands of supporters [AFP]
Venezuela's president has won a referendum to scrap term limits for
elected officials, allowing him to seek re-election indefinitely.
Hugo Chavez greeted cheering supporters at the presidential palace in
Caracas on Sunday, moments after the country's electoral commission chief
declared victory for the "yes" vote.
"Long live the revolution," shouted Chavez, as he stood pumping his fist
on the palace balcony in front of thousands of flag-waving supporters.
After leading supporters in singing the national anthem, he said: "Today
we opened wide the gates of the future. Venezuela will not return to its past
of indignity."
Tibisay Lucena, the chief of the national electoral council, said that
with 94 per cent of the vote counted, 54 per cent had backed the president's
proposal - an unbeatable lead.
Festive mood
There was a festive mood on the streets of the capital, as Chavez
supporters began celebrating the result.
In depth
Caracas split over Chavez changes
In pictures: Venezuela votes
Q&A: Chavez referendum
Profile: Hugo Chavez
Join the debate on Venezuela's referendum
Video: Venezuelans to vote on Chavez
Students battle over Venezuela vote
Video: Venezuela votes amid economic woes
"People here are ecstatic," Al Jazeera's Rob Winder, reporting from
Chacao district in Caracas, said.
"There are hundreds of people in the street - people are riding around on
motorbikes and dancing on the roofs of cars."
Chavez said he received a first message of congratulations from Fidel
Castro, Cuba's former president and a mentor of Chavez.
"Dear Hugo, congratulations for you and for your people for a victory
that, by its size, is impossible to measure," Castro wrote, according to Chavez.
Venezuela has been divided by the referrendum, which seeks to ammend five
articles of the country's constitution to grant the president, mayors, local
councilors, legislators and governors unlimited bids for re-election.
The vote was Chavez's second attempt to remove the two-term cap for
presidents.
The win means he can seek re-election when his second term in office ends
in 2013 and hold the presidency for as long as he continues to win elections.
Without the ammendments, the president is only allowed to hold two
consecutive terms, which would mean that Chavez, elected in 1998 and again in
2006, would have to step down at the end of his second mandate.
Opposition defeated
The result is a huge blow for Venezuela's opposition which had made gains
in city and state elections last year.
Opposition parties had pinned their hopes on a student movement
spearheading the "No is No" vote, a reference to Chavez's failed effort in 2007
to push through constitutional changes to extend his presidency.
Chavez had previously described winning the vote as key to completing his
transformation of Venezuela into a socialist state.
His supporters say he has given poor Venezuelans cheap food, free
education and quality health care and empowered the poor, after decades of
US-backed governments that favored the rich.
Chavez supporters poured on to the streets of Caracas to celebrate
the win [Reuters]
But analysts warn that Chavez's social programmes could be hard hit by
tumbling oil prices.
"Independently from this referendum Chavez is facing a very acute
financial and political crisis in the very near term," Gustavo Coronel, a
former board member of the Venezuelan state oil company and an opponent to
Chavez, told Al Jazeera.
"So far he has been instituting a policy of handouts that have been very
good for him. He is very popular among the poor because he has received more
than $700bn in the last 10 years," he said.
"[But] the oil prices have plummeted ... I doubt this referendum really
means a victory for him in the longer term. I think that, in fact, he might be
fighting for his life before the end of the normal term of 2012."
Gabrial Elizondo, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Puerto Ordaz in
Venezuela's Bolivar province, said that it has to be noted that Chavez "got 54
per cent of the vote - and that is not an overwhelming mandate by anybody's
estimation. This does not guarantee him a permanent rule by any stretch of the
imagination.
"This is really an example of democracy in motion, and it is a victory
for Chavez ... but also keep it in perspective ... he is going to have to go
through another election if he wants to continue his presidency just in a few
more years."
About 100 international observers monitored the vote, but neither the
Organisation of American States (OAS) nor the European Union had official
observers in Venezuela.
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