User:Awickert/Sandbox/vzla

On November 30th, 2008, six days after the Venezuelan regional elections, Hugo Chávez announced on television that he would be open to a new wave of discussion on his indefinite re-election. The following day, he urged his supporters to start working towards a constitutional amendment towards this goal. By making the change to the constitution an amendment instead of a constitutional reform, Chávez circumvented the constitutional regulation that does not allow a new constitutional reform on the same topic until 201

The initial reaction of the Venezuelan opposition to the referendum proposal was that it was unconstitutional for two reasons. First, opposition declared the change to the constitution illegal because it had been considered and rejected before, in 2007. Article 345 of the Venezuelan constitution states that "A revised constitutional reform initiative may not be submitted during the same constitutional term of office [to] 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 elected officials, not just to the president. However, the constitution states that "The purpose of constitutional reform is to effect a partial revision of this Constitution and replacement of one or more of the provisions hereof, without modifying the fundamental principles and structure of the text of the Constitution." The opposition argues that the change in term limits for elected officials is a major change to the constitution and cannot be effected by a reform, let alone an amendment, which is intended for smaller changes to the constitution, and that a constituent assembly to re-write the constitution is required for such a change. However, the Venezuelan government ruled that such a change was within the scope of a constitutional amendment, and that such an amendment could be re-attempted each year. Second, article 64 of the Venezuelan constitution states that, "All Venezuelans who have reached the age of 18 and are not subject to political disablement or civil interdiction are qualified to vote." The February 15th date is too soon to comply with the constitution and the suffrage law and complete 75-day process to create an election registry that includes those Venezuelans who turned 18 after September 24, 2008, the last time the electoral registry closed.