The article posted below discusses Hugo Chavez’s defeated initiatives in the December 2007 referendum. Chavez’s initiatives included lowering the voting age, extending social security benefits, cutting the work day, and most importantly (in terms of electoral rules) indefinite presidential reelection and increasing the term for presidency.
The main question that I considered while reviewing this article was:
Does this defeat reinforce Venezuela’s democratic system or does it simply mean that free elections can take place in an authoritarian regime?
Whatever happens in the next election and how Chavez reacts to the results of that election will get us closer to answering this question.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7124313.stm
- Venezuela Group
1 response so far ↓
monicapachon // February 5, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Waiting till the next elections seems a loonng time. Maybe we could get some hints – there was some defections on Chavez’s lines before the referendum. Has this dissidency aligned with the opposition? Do you know of any polls that we could look at?
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