The National Assembly overwhelmingly approved Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s proposed constitutional amendment to allow for unlimited re-election on Wednesday.
The amendment will now be submitted to a referendum, possibly Feb. 15, when it could conceivably founder as a similar measure did in late 2007.
OTHER OFFICIALS
PHOTO: EPA
Chavez, who first sought unlimited re-election only for the president but recently asked it to be extended to all elected officials in the country, has already said he planned to run in the 2012 presidential election if he is allowed.
Chavez, first elected president in 1998, was re-elected in 2006 for a term that ends in February 2013. Venezuela’s Constitution was changed in late 1999, allowing Chavez to run for an additional re-election.
Stacked with Chavez followers, the National Assembly passed the amendment by a show of hands, with only seven opposition members voting against it.
The measure, which is to be submitted to referendum within 30 days after its approval, will now go before the National Election Board, which on Friday is expected to announce a date for the plebiscite.
Meanwhile, Chavez has manned an all-out campaign to convince Venezuelans his brand of socialism is what the country needs and can only be carried out fully if he remains in power.
GOOD GOVERNMENT
“No law can be written in stone,” ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) deputy Carlos Escarra told his colleagues during the debate preceding the vote.
He said the proposed amendment is based on “the theory of good government that calls for giving the greatest social happiness to a group of citizens.”
Mario Isea, another PSUV deputy, said: “Before us we have an amendment aimed at eliminating current [term] limits, so that all legally able citizens can run for election and the people can choose from them without limitations of any kind.”
DISSENT
Podemos Party member Juan Jose Molina, one of the few dissenting lawmakers, said that the measure was unconstitutional and was a product of Chavez’ whim to stay in office all his life.
“You cannot manipulate things by invoking the law and democratic values, believing that people are stupid and unaware that the idea behind it is to concentrate power in one man and dissolve the [government] institutions,” he told his colleagues.
Wednesday’s vote was the second on the no-term-limits measure, after it was approved on its initial reading on Dec. 18.
A few students demonstrated in Caracas against the measure and were dispersed by police with tear gas.
Last month, Chavez denied he was seeking a permanent foothold in power throught the constitutional amendment.
“They say my personal goal is to perpetuate myself in power; nothing could be further from the truth,” Chavez told a group of military garrison chiefs on Dec. 28.
‘ANGOSTURA’
“What we have here is a national independence project that still needs more work to consolidate. It’s not consolidated yet,” he said of his “Bolivarian” socialist revolution that has so far nationalized several of the country’s key industries.
Those industries include energy, telecommunications, oil and steel concerns.
Opposition parties have set up a pressure group to reject the no-term-limits measure, calling their movement “Angostura,” after a speech by Venezuelan founding father Simon Bolivar warning of the dangers of unlimited political power.
How the amendment will fare in the next referendum remains an open question.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS