Religion and voting in Sudan

Chavez wins vote to scrap term limits

In other words, he proclaim himself president for ever...

Benedict Mander, Caracas

Financial Times

February 16

Venezuelans have given Hugo Chavez’s ”Bolivarian revolution” fresh impetus after voting in favour of a referendum that will allow the socialist leader to continue running for president indefinitely.

”The gates to the future have been opened wide,” said an emotional Mr Chavez from the balcony of the presidential palace, as a throng of ecstatic followers chanted in unison, ”Hey, ho, Chavez won’t go”.

With 54 per cent of Venezuelans voting in favour of abolishing term limits for elected officials – representing a wider margin of victory than expected – Mr Chavez announced he would stand for re-election when his current six-year term expires in January 2013.

”Today you have written my political destiny, which is the same as my life’s destiny,” said Mr Chavez, announcing a new phase in his revolution from 2009 to 2019, having completed the phase that began when he first assumed power in 1999.

The victory will re-ignite Mr Chavez’s resolve to bring ”21st century socialism” to Venezuela, less than three months after suffering a setback when a resurgent opposition won key urban centres in regional elections.

Indeed, the result represented a serious blow to Venezuela’s fragmented opposition, after little more than a year ago having succeeded in blocking Mr Chavez’s attempted overhaul of the constitution, which included scrapping presidential term limits.

”This was the campaign in which David stood up to Goliath, but Goliath won,” said Leopoldo Lopez, a leader of the opposition, which was fiercely critical of the government’s abuse of state resources in an aggressive propaganda campaign.

Cuba’s ex-president Fidel Castro, who Mr Chavez describes as his mentor, was quick to congratulate the result, saying ”its importance was impossible to measure”.

In what was the fifteenth nationwide vote since Mr Chavez was first elected a decade ago, an unusually high 67 per cent of Venezuela’s 16.8m registered voters went to the polls, according to results after 94 per cent of the vote had been counted.

With fireworks exploding into the late night sky, Mr Chavez pledged to elated supporters that the government would redouble its efforts to tackle persistent problems that have dented his popularity, such as violent crime, corruption, waste and bureaucracy.

But analysts also suggested that the comfortable victory will also embolden the government to confront serious economic challenges caused by a collapse in oil revenues.

Economists at Barclays suggest the government will soon implement a financial transaction tax, increase the value added tax rate, and cut expensive subsidies on domestic petrol prices, which are some of the cheapest in the world.

A devaluation of some 37 per cent could soon take place, argues Barclays, now that the currency has become heavily misaligned after almost four years at a fixed exchange rate at the same time as double digit inflation.

How soon economic adjustments come is uncertain, although analysts expect painful changes to be made well before legislative elections in December 2010.

Bolivia's Revolutionary New Charter

By Jean Friedman-Rudovsky / La Paz
January 27
TIME

Pro-government demonstrators gather in La Paz, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009.

Juan Karita / AP

"I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all my brothers and sisters who have used their democratic participation to re-found Bolivia," President Evo Morales said on Sunday night in front of thousands of exhilarated supporters after more than 60% of his nation had voted in favor of a new constitution. "Internal and external colonialism have come to an end."

It isn't all that novel a move: the new constitution is Bolivia's 17th. But it's the first to be written via a specially elected delegate assembly and the first to undergo a national vote. (The last constitution was written and enacted by Parliament in 1967 without the participation of a single indigenous person). An elaborate document, it expands the rights of the indigenous majority. Bolivia's 36 native tongues are now all official languages, along with Spanish, and Parliament will include ethnic group representation. Also, the text solidifies state control over natural resources and makes access to water a basic human right.

The win was widely expected, as was the strong showing in support of the constitution by rural and highland voters. But like Bolivia's recall vote last August, in which Morales won 67% national approval, Sunday showed that Bolivia's east/west regional divide that brought the country to the brink of civil war last September remains. The constitution was heavily rejected in the eastern lowlands of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija where wealthy land and business owners dominate local politics. Criticism ranged from the constitution's elimination of Catholicism's privileged position as official religion to worry about "extreme indigenous power."

But for many, the document's specifics were only a part of Sunday's contest. Five year-old Joaquin Claros, who was hanging onto his mom's arm outside a La Paz polling station on Sunday, knew what was at stake. Mom and dad, he exclaimed excitedly, had voted "for Evo!"

"Evo," of course, wasn't a ballot option (it was either Yes or No on various categories). But Sunday's vote was considered just as much a referendum on the President as it was on the text. Government officials therefore interpret the 20-plus point victory as a solid win. Opposition leaders say that the document's rejection in the eastern part of the country means that there must be some move toward compromise.

Compromise may in fact have already been key in the constitution's passage. An earlier version allowed for expropriation of large estates — a hot button issue in a country where less than one percent of the population owns more than two thirds of the land. But negotiations resulted in leaving the current holdings as is and limiting future landownership. On Sunday voters had a choice between limiting ownership to 10,000 or 25,00 acres per person limit. They voted 75% in favor of the former.

An agreement before the referendum avoided a battle over re-election. Sometime after Morales' ally Venezuela President Hugo Chavez failed in his bid at ending presidential term limits, Morales agreed to keep Bolivia's re-election laws as is. He is therefore able to compete in this December's Presidential elections for one more five year term — but no more. That doesn't mean he wont try "to pull a Chavez," noted Santa Cruz resident Alberto Montero last week, referring to the Venezuelan's attempt to pass a separate referendum on indefinite re-election after Venezuela's new constitution was approved.

But there will be more wrangling down the line. "A constitution is only a foundation," says Carlos Alarcon, a constitutional lawyer and Vice Minister of Justice under former President Carlos Mesa. There is likely to be debate about any new legislation based on the language of the new charter. "Bolivia is going to have to strengthen its institutions — both state and judicial — if this new constitution and the new laws are going be implemented."

In Washington, the Obama Administration responded positively to Bolivia's vote. Responding to a reporter's question, acting State Department Spokesman Robert Wood said, "we congratulate the Bolivian people on the referendum... we look forward to working with the Bolivian Government in ways we can to further democracy and prosperity in the hemisphere." Says Mark Weisbrot, director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research: "it's a hopeful sign" for the future of relations between the two countries. The previous U.S. administration would most likely have remained silent on Bolivia's electoral processes.