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Chavez's Changes In Tight Race

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By IAN JAMES, The Associated Press

Published: December 3, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela - Hugo Chavez sought to cement his power and end presidential term limits in a vote Sunday that the government and opposition said was too close to call.

"The result of the referendum is close," Vice President Jorge Rodriguez said from Chavez's headquarters for the vote on a constitutional overhaul. "We will respect the result, whatever it is - even if it's by one single vote."

He said some polling stations remained open late and the electoral council was still awaiting results from 20 percent of them.
Opposition leader Julio Borges likened the results to a photo finish.

After most polls closed, caravans of Chavez's supporters took to the streets honking horns and blaring celebratory music. The opposition said, however, that it intended to closely monitor the results. No official turnout figures were available.

An emboldened opposition and violent clashes in recent weeks had prompted fears of bitter conflict if either side disputed the results.

Chavez's opponents fear a win by the president could mean a plunge toward dictatorship. Supporters have faith that Chavez would use the reforms to deepen grass-roots democracy and more equitably spread the wealth in South America's top oil exporting nation.

The changes would create new forms of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map, permit civil liberties to be suspended under extended states of emergency and allow Chavez to seek re-election indefinitely. Otherwise, he cannot run again in 2012.

"He's going to be an elected dictator," 77-year-old voter Ruben Rozenberg said of Chavez. The retired blue jeans maker, who emigrated from Cuba in 1961, said that although Chavez's revolution is peaceful compared with that of Fidel Castro, "we've been violated all around" by the Venezuelan leader's progressive consolidation of power.

Across town, in a pro-Chavez slum, 40-year-old Jorge Blanco said Chavez "is giving power to the people" through the reforms. "He opened that little door and now we're free."

Of the wealthy elite, Blanco said: "What they fear is losing power."

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