ZFBoxcar

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has narrowly lost a referendum on controversial constitutional changes.

Voters rejected the sweeping reforms by a margin of 51% to 49%, the chief of the National Electoral Council said.

Mr Chavez described the defeat as a "photo finish", and urged followers not to turn it into a point of conflict.

Correspondents say the opposition could barely hide their delight and that the victory will put the brakes on Mr Chavez's "Socialist revolution".

With his raft of reforms, Mr Chavez was seeking an end to presidential term limits and the removal of the Central Bank's autonomy.

But the result marks the president's first electoral reverse since he won power in an election in 1998.

Since then he has set about introducing sweeping changes in the country's laws aimed at re-distributing the Venezuela's oil wealth to poorer farmers in rural areas.

The main opposition parties had claimed during the referendum campaign that Mr Chavez was seeking to give himself too much power, and was trying to establish a dictatorship.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Chavez defeated over reform vote

Feanor

So he's not a dictator......

gunnut

yet...

__________________
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

Ray

Good to find that Chavez can be defeated.

It does indicate that the polls are free and fair.

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Ironduke

What I find unbelievable is that one of the issues on the poll was to reduce the maximum working day from eight hours to six... how can an economy prosper if people are only allowed to work only six hours today. It's very strange that such disparate issues were brought together on a single referendum, such as lower the voting age, abolishing term limits and expanding presidential terms, etc. Hopefully we'll see Hugo Chavez out of office, and not see another man clinging on like Musharraf does now.

__________________
The Buck Stops Here

Feanor

The poll was defeated. If the vote was democratic, which it seems to be, Chavez isn't and won't be any time soon, a dictator.

Julie

I think the referendum incentives were to clinch what Chavez wanted, a majority vote. Then, as dictator, he could change and do whatever he wanted to people. I sure am glad it was voted down.

Dreadnought

Perhaps maybe the people finally realized his true intentions. Very fortunate.

__________________
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

gunnut

Does he still control the army?

He's going with the election results for now. When his term is up in a few years and there's no other legal way to stay in power, he just might grab power with guns.

He's not a dictator...yet.

dalem

Didn't Hitler lose a few votes as Chancellor too? I can't remember.

-dale

GVChamp

The jist I got was that turnout was pretty low, which disproportionately affected Chavez's supporters.

__________________
"The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood"-Otto Von Bismarck

Ironduke

I believe that Chavez has the best intentions, and while they're certainly has been improvement in some areas such as education and medical care in Venezuela, other developments are harmful and will continue to harm the country in the long-term.

That being said, I believe Chavez has dictatorial aspirations. He did after all lead an attempted coup some years before he became elected president, not dissimilar at all from the Munich Putsch. He believes he alone holds the correct vision for the shape Venezuela should take for the future, and seeks to cast out those who have competing visions, and use democratic processes to entrench himself as a life dictator.

Venezuela has made economic progress in the past three years, but these can be solely attributed to rising oil prices and the redistribution of these. Prior to 2004, Venezuela was in recession, and its current economic growth won't be sustainable if oil prices fall, oil becomes more expensive to produce, or runs out. It will run out eventually, and the discouragement of business and free enterprise is going to be seriously harmful to the nation's economic health.

Ray

I think Chavez thinks he is a messiah!

That is where he is wrong!

Julie

I think Chavez has a big mouth !

Kansas Bear

Overlooked poor bite back at Chávez
By Richard Lapper and Benedict Mander in Caracas

Published: December 3 2007 20:39 | Last updated: December 3 2007 20:39

Visibly shaken by his referendum defeat, President Hugo Chávez tried to put on a brave face early Monday morning.

Seeking inspiration perhaps from Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century independence leader whose image hung behind him at the Miraflores Palace, Mr Chávez promised to turn a difficult moment into a moral triumph.

That speech triggered the emergence of Mr Chávez as an alternative political leader, eventually leading to his first election victory in 1998. But it could be more difficult for the Venezuelan president to pull off a similar trick in the face of adversity this time.

In 1992 Mr Chávez was a political unknown whose popular style and anti-corruption message struck a chord in a society tired of corruption and worried by the possibility of austerity.

By contrast, he began 2007 at the height of his popularity, having won 62 per cent of the vote in last December’s election. He has now been in power for nine years, for much of that time enjoying the benefit of surging oil prices and bumper government revenues.

Some of that support has looked more fragile in recent months. A year ago the inhabitants of poor urban areas streamed out en masse to vote Mr Chávez into office for another six-year term. This time many of them stayed at home, contributing to an abstention rate of more than 44 per cent. “Abstention was going to hurt the opposition but in the end it defeated us,” Mr Chávez conceded on Sunday.

Analysts suggest that the urban poor were unenthusiastic about the constitutional proposals that would have granted the president sweeping new powers, including the ability to be re-elected indefinitely, and accelerated the introduction of “21st century socialism” into Venezuela.

“Chávez was out of step with the wishes of the poorer sectors of the population that support him,” says Edgardo Lander, a leftwing political scientist at the Central University of Venezuela. “He had interpreted his election victory in 2006 as a kind of carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, but in reality it’s not like that.”

Others suggest that economic distortions resulting from price and exchange rate controls and a sharp fall in private investment in farming and manufacturing have hit the government hard. Despite the oil bonanza, in the state-run supermarkets where the poor shop many basic foodstuffs – such as milk and sugar – are in short supply.

Steve Ellner, a political scientist at the Oriente University in Venezuela, says the government may need to pay more attention to problems such as refuse collection and crime in poor areas.

“With all their lofty ideals the Chavistas are maybe paying less attention [than they should] to these tangible and specific things.”

In addition, although Mr Chávez last year won a strong popular mandate to press ahead with reforms, his radicalism has alienated many erstwhile supporters and created new opponents.

Leftwing socialists – members of small parties that had supported Mr Chávez’s governing alliance – baulked at efforts to force them into a single party and came into open opposition over the constitutional changes.

Mr Chávez’s radicalism in another area has also created a new group of opponents. The decision to take RCTV, a rightwing but very popular television station, off the air served to spur the growth of activism by university students. These distanced themselves from the traditional parties ousted from power in 1998, as well as other rightwing groups who backed campaigns to force out the leader in the early part of this decade.

“The students have been very important for their enthusiasm. They have helped renovate the opposition’s leadership and they got people out to vote,” says Michael Penfold, a political scientist at the IESA business school in Caracas.

FT.com / World / Americas - Overlooked poor bite back at Chávez