HUGO CHÁVEZ’S ambition to lead Venezuela for decades to come hung in the balance last night as the country voted in a constitutional referendum that could abolish presidential term limits, paving the way for his indefinite re-election.
Opinion polls gave him a slight edge after a controversial campaign that pitted student protesters against police and turned the state into a “red machine” to deliver a Yes vote.
The president said he wanted to run again when his term ends in 2013, with unlimited re-election rights, to protect his self-styled socialist revolution “from enemies at home and abroad”.
The vote, he said in a newspaper column, would either safeguard or sabotage a historic process of transformation and liberation that had lit up South America.
Activists in red T-shirts handed flyers yesterday with 10 reasons to vote yes. Number one: “Chavez loves us and love is repaid with love.” Number two: “Chavez is incapable of doing us harm.”
– ( Guardianservice)