Chavez loses bid to rule until 2050
The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has lost a referendum that would have allowed him to run for re-election indefinitely and enshrined socialism in the country.Voters narrowly rejected the proposed constitutional changes in yesterday’s vote, an unprecedented defeat for a leader accustomed to landslides.
After a night of political drama, election officials announced the opposition had won 51% and the government 49%, a result that slammed the brakes on Chávez’s self-styled revolution.
Opposition supporters set off fireworks and poured on to the streets to celebrate what they said was the preservation of democracy from a power-hungry autocrat.
We’ll have to see what Chavez’s next step is, but this is obviously good news.
