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Venezuela Votes on Lifting Term Limits for Chavez

By Brian Wagner
Caracas
15 February 2009

Venezuelans are voting on a proposal to end term limits for elected officials, which would allow President Hugo Chavez to continue seeking re-election.

Voters wait in line outside a polling station in Caracas, Sunday, 15 Feb. 2009
Voters wait in line outside a polling station in Caracas, Sunday, 15 Feb. 2009
More than 16 million people are eligible to cast ballots on the measure that would end term limits for elected officials. Some residents awoke early Sunday to the sound of fireworks and recorded music, calling voters to polling stations.

President Chavez has called for the vote, saying he needs more time to finish his socialist-inspired revolution. Under the existing laws, he must leave office when his second term ends in 2013.

Late Saturday, the president assured voters that his government would honor the results of the ballot. And he rejected criticism from opposition leaders and foreign groups, who have said the proposed amendment is an attempt to cling to power.

He said foreign capitalists are afraid that his project in Venezuela will continue to succeed as it has during the past 10 years.

Voters defeated a similar measure on term limits in 2007, when they rejected a broad package of constitutional reforms.

After casting her ballot in Caracas, school teacher Maria Alejandra Fernandez said she opposed the measure.

She said having one person in power too long damages the country. Elected officials should serve fixed terms, as the country has always done.

Election officials have agreed to hold voting stations open two hours later than in previous elections, in an effort to ensure all voters have cast ballots.

rovided by AFP and Reuters.