2009 Venezuelan constitutional referendum
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The 2009 referendum was a vote in which the citizens of Venezuela approved Amendment No. 1 (''Enmienda No. 1'') of the
Constitution of Venezuela The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela (CRBV)) is the current and twenty-sixth constitution of Venezuela. It was drafted in mid-1999 by a constituent assembly that h ...
; this abolished
term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...
s for the offices of
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
, state governors, mayors and
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
deputies A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...
. The current constitution, enacted in 1999 by
referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, previously established a three-term limit for deputies and a two-term limit for the other offices. The proposed
amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. The ...
was put to a referendum on 15 February 2009 and endorsed by 54% of the electorate, with approximately 70% of registered voters participating. Upon having his term limits removed, Chávez promised to supporters that he would lead Venezuela until 2030.


Background

A proposal for an important change in the main structure of the Constitution, that included abolishing presidential term limits among major social, economical and political changes was rejected in 2007 when university students led protests and played a critical role in the result;
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Hugo Chávez had said the reform was needed to implement his
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
program. Chávez conceded defeat by saying "for now, we couldn't" ''("por ahora no pudimos"''),Matthew Walter and Helen Murphy
Venezuelans Reject Chavez's Plans for Constitution (Update1).
''Bloomberg'', 3 December 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
echoing the phrase he used after the failure of his February 1992 attempted coup d'état against the Carlos Andrés Pérez government. On 30 November 2008, six days after broadening support in regional elections, Hugo Chávez decided that it was the opportunity to seek continuous presidential terms, announcing on television that he would be open to a new wave of discussion on the proposal for allowing the postulation without limits to presidential candidature. A National Electoral Council supportive of Chávez quickly accepted elections, scheduling the referendum a little over a month after the regional elections for February 2009. The following day, his supporters started working towards a constitutional amendment for this goal. Chávez utilized successful managers from
PDVSA Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...
to lead his referendum campaign. He also offered the abolition of term limits to governors and other officials who supported his removal of term limits. The Chávez administration then distributed many free kitchen and household appliances to his supporters beside flyers stating "Chávez loves us and love is repaid with love" and "Chávez is incapable of doing us harm".


Provisions of the amendment

The full title of the law was Amendment No. 1 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (''Enmienda No. 1 de la Constitucion de Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela''). It was approved by a majority of the members of the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
. The
United Socialist Party of Venezuela The United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( es, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) is a left-wing to far-left socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2010. It was formed from a merger of some of the p ...
(Chávez's political party) states that the initiative was backed by more than six million people. The amendment affects Articles 160, 162, 174, 192 and 230 of the constitution. They are amended as follows: Article 341 of the constitution, which governs amendments, states that "amendments shall be numbered consecutively and shall be published beneath the Constitution without altering the text of the latter". Therefore, the 2009 amendment has not altered the original text of the constitution. Rather, Amendment No.1 (including new texts for each of the five amended articles) is published below the original text as a codicil.


Referendum question

The question elaborated by the National Electoral Council was:


Results

Opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...
s conducted on the measure in December 2008 varied widely, with results ranging from 32% approval (with 61% disapproval) to 51% approval (with 39% disapproval). The final results were as follows: These figures were given in the second partial official bulletin, issued when canvassing reached a 98.81% of the votes. The trends are deemed to be irreversible. Final results are awaited in the following days.


Reaction


Opposition

The initial reaction of the opposition to the referendum proposal was that it was illegal.
Henry Ramos Allup Henry Lisandro Ramos Allup (born 17 October 1943) is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer and former President of the National Assembly who was born in Valencia, Carabobo. He has been leader of the social democratic Democratic Action party, holding ...
, secretary general of the opposition party Acción Democrática called the proposal "'illegal and unconstitutional' because Article 345 says that 'A revised constitutional reform initiative may not be submitted during the same constitutional term of office of the National Assembly.'" Chávez avoided this issue by declaring that the change to the constitution would be in the form of an amendment, instead of a constitutional reform. In addition, the constitutional amendment was re-defined to apply to all popular elected positions, not just to the president. Elenis Rodríguez Martínez, a leader of the opposition party
Primero Justicia The Justice First ( es, Primero Justicia) is a centre-right political party in Venezuela. Founded in 1992 as a civil association, it became a political party in 2000. Henrique Capriles was the candidate of the party in 2013 general election. ...
, stated that the proposed change constitutes a fundamental change to the constitution, and therefore cannot be voted as an amendment. She stated that, "Under Article 340, 'the purpose of an amendment is to add to or modify one or more articles of the Constitution, without altering the fundamental structure of the same.' When the president says that he wants to delete some words from Article 230 of the Constitution, he is lying, because he really wants to remove an essential part of the text and in doing so he is altering its structure, as well as part of the provisions of Article 6, which reads that 'the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is ... alternating' (...) This is a camouflaged reform." However, the
Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
ruled that such a change was within the scope of a constitutional amendment, and that such an amendment could be re-attempted each year. The editors of Venezuelan publishing house ''Veneconomy'' argue that the 15 February date is too soon to comply with time-frames set forth by the suffrage law and related laws for the registration of voters newly turned-18 and for the organization of polling stations. Students again took a leading role in protests, as they did in the campaign against the 2007 referendum. On 16 January students blocked a Caracas highway, burned trees and taunted the police. After viewing video of the protests, Chávez gave the order: "Throw lots of (tear) gas at them, and take them prisoner for me. If you don't, I'm going to go after the authorities responsible." Tensions rose in advance of the referendum, with a group of 40 armed men taking over the Caracas city hall, to which an opposition mayor had been elected in November, and declaring the building "recovered for the revolution". Tear gas was also thrown at the compound of the papal nuncio, who had granted asylum to an anti-Chávez student leader accused of sexual assault; and an anti-Chávez student leader's car was burned.Kraul, Chris (20 January 2009).
Tensions build in Venezuela as Chavez prepares for referendum.
" ''Los Angeles Times''. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
Opposition figures have accused Chávez of using all the resources of the government to support the Yes campaign, ranging from near-total support for the Yes campaign on state radio and television to placement of Yes campaign ads on official ministry websites. According to opposition figure
Leopoldo López Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza (born 29 April 1971) is a Venezuelan opposition leader. He co-founded the political party Primero Justicia in 2000 with Henrique Capriles and Julio Borges and was elected mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Car ...
, "we aren’t competing against a political party, we’re competing against an entire state and all of the power it can wield". The opposition also says that No campaign ads have had their approval delayed and scheduling manipulated by the National Electoral Council.


International

Following claims that US officials had met with Venezuelan opposition leaders in
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
(which the US denied), Chávez accused U.S. President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
of meddling in the referendum, adding that "He's said I'm an obstacle for progress in Latin America... Therefore it must be removed, this obstacle, right?" Chávez also added that Obama was under pressure from the Pentagon to be tough on Venezuela by quoting: "He
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knows that if he doesn't obey the orders of the empire, they'll probably kill him."


International observers

Around 100 international observers were accredited to observe the vote, but neither the Organization of American States nor the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
had official observers in Venezuela. Observers from Latin American nations,
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
members, and European academics said that the ballot had been free and fair. The
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
spokesman Noel Clay praised the "civic spirit" of the referendum. He added that it was important that elected officials in Venezuela focused on "governing democratically". On 13 February 2009, the Venezuelan government expelled Luis Herrero, a Spanish member of the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
(and member of the European People's Party), after he called Chávez a
dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...
and criticized Chávez's handling of the constitutional referendum. One of the parties in the opposition to Chávez had asked Herrero to observe the referendum. In April 2009,
NACLA North American Congress in Latin America (NACLA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1966 to provide information on trends in Latin America and relations between Latin America and the United States. The organization is best known for publish ...
reported that its observers had found that "the voting in Venezuela’s 2009 referendum was, overall, fair, transparent, and clean."
NACLA North American Congress in Latin America (NACLA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1966 to provide information on trends in Latin America and relations between Latin America and the United States. The organization is best known for publish ...
, 23 April 2009
Debrief: New Report on Venezuela's Re-Election Referendum


References


External links


Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
(in English translation from the original legal text)
Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela


Media

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Venezuelan Constitutional Referendum, 2009 2009 elections in South America 2009 in Venezuela 2009 referendums Constitutional amendments Elections in Venezuela Hugo Chávez Referendums in Venezuela Constitutions of Venezuela Constitutional referendums Reelection Bolivarian Revolution