President Hugo Chavez says a referendum victory that removed limits on his re-election is a mandate to intensify his socialist agenda for decades to come. Opponents warn of an impending dictatorship. Both sides had called the outcome of Sunday's vote key to the future of this South American country, split down the middle between those who worship the president for redistributing Venezuela's oil riches and those who see him as a power-hungry autocrat.
"Those who voted "yes" today voted for socialism, for revolution," Chavez thundered to thousands of ecstatic supporters jamming the streets around the presidential palace. Fireworks lit up the Caracas skyline, and one man walked though the crowd carrying a painting of Chavez that read: "Forever." Josefa Dugarte stared at the crowd from the stoop of her apartment building with look of dismay. "These people don't realize what they have done," she muttered.
With 94 percent of the vote counted, official results showed the amendment passing 54 percent to 46 percent, an irreversible trend, and opposition leaders accepted the results. Tibisay Lucena, president of National Electoral Council, said turnout was 67 percent. The constitutional overhaul allows all public officials to run for re-election as many times as they want, removing barriers to a Chavez candidacy in the next presidential elections in 2012 and beyond.
"In 2012 there will be presidential elections, and unless God decides otherwise, unless the people decide otherwise, this soldier is already a candidate," Chavez said to applause. First elected in 1998, he has said he might stay in power until 2049, when he'll be 95. But analysts said Chavez shouldn't count on getting re-elected just yet.
"Chavez's intention is clear: He aspires to be president for life," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "He is convinced he embodies the popular will and is indispensable to the country's progress. But his capacity to pull this off is far from assured." He said the global financial crisis and the plunging price of oil, which accounts for 94 percent of Venezuela's exports and nearly half its federal budget, will limit Chavez's ability to maintain the level of public spending that has fueled his popularity.
"The greatest challenge the government now faces is governing in the face of crisis and not falling into triumphalism," said Miguel Tinker Salas, a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. At their campaign headquarters, Chavez opponents hugged one another, and some cried. They said the results were skewed by Chavez's broad use of state resources to get out the vote, through a battery of state-run news media, pressure on 2 million public employees and frequent presidential speeches which all television stations were required to air.
With the courts, the legislature and the election council all under his influence, and now with no limits on his re-election, officials say Chavez is virtually unstoppable. "Effectively this will become a dictatorship," opposition leader Omar Barboza told The Associated Press. "It's control of all the powers, lack of separation of powers, unscrupulous use of state resources, persecution of adversaries."
Opponents of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez Monday warned of greater authoritarian rule after he triumphed in a referendum which could allow him to stay in office for life. Chavez, who has already been president for a decade in this Latin American nation, said he now intended to stand for a third term in 2012, after winning 54.36 percent of preliminary results in Sunday's referendum. "The doors of the future are wide open," Chavez boomed from the balcony of his Miraflores palace after winning the referendum which scraps the previous rules requiring the president to stand down after two terms in office.
Chavez's victory strengthens his mandate, which would normally have ended in 2013, and could prompt him to expand his socialist drive, which has led to nationalizations and greater state control over the economy. In this increasingly polarized country, the opposition garnered some 45.63 percent after more than 11 million people out of some 17 million eligible voters went to the ballot. The leftist leader is popular with many of the country's poor for his oil-funded health care and education programs, but blamed by a vocal opposition for rising crime, corruption and inflation.
Critics charge that Chavez has too much power, holding sway over the courts, lawmakers and the election council. "With this result, the president can deepen the path to socialism and he'll be tempted to reinforce the authoritarian character of Venezuela's politics," warned Veneuzelan International Relations professor Carlos Romero. There was also criticism of flaws in the weekend ballot. "Chavez won the right to re-election after a process marred with faults," the El Nacional newspaper headline read.
The opposition had widely criticized Chavez's massive state-sponsored campaign for the vote to alter the constitution. "This was the campaign with most abuses of public resources that we have ever seen," said Carlos Vecchio, a member of an opposition grouping. Venezuela becomes the first Latin American country to adopt unlimited electoral terms with the vote. The president was previously allowed two consecutive terms, which would have forced Chavez to step down at the end of his second mandate in 2013. The proposed amendment was his second bid to extend presidential term limits after a package of sweeping constitutional changes, including an end to term limits, was struck down by voters in December 2007. But the vote also comes amid warnings that Chavez's social programs in this OPEC member nation could be hard hit by tumbling oil prices.
"I think that the greatest challenge the government now faces is governing in the face of crisis and not falling into triumphalism," Venezuelan analyst Miguel Tinker Salas of Pomona College, California, told AFP. As Chavez-dominated national TV stations on Monday played patriotic songs and images of the president and his supporters, the private opposition-led press lauded the high turnout -- the most in the last four elections -- and reported complaints about voting machines. From Buenos Aires to Havana and beyond, many watched the vote on the future of the fierce anti-liberal US foe and Latin American leftist champion. Chavez said he received his first congratulations from his mentor, former Cuban president Fidel Castro.
The latest vote came only three months after regional and municipal elections in which the opposition gained ground. "We don't like Chavez, his people, or unlimited re-election," said opposition supporter Rosi Gonzales after voting in eastern Caracas. "He's destroyed the country." Chavez supporters meanwhile reveled in another victory for their larger-than-life leader. "Chavez has been a president who loves the people and has fought for them," said Diazmelis Benitez, from a working class neighborhood of Caracas.
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