Sad Day For Hugo :-(

[Ninja]

Good day for Venezuelans :-D

Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez suffered a stunning defeat Monday in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and impose a socialist system in this major U.S. oil provider.

Voters defeated the sweeping measures Sunday by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout at just 56 percent.

She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible.

Opposition supporters shouted with joy as Lucena announced the results on national television early Monday, their first victory against Chavez after nine years of electoral defeats.

Some broke down in tears. Others began chanting "And now he's going away!"

"This was a photo finish," Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace, adding that unlike past Venezuelan governments, his respects the people's will.

Exactly a year ago, Chavez won re-election with 63 percent of the vote.

"Don't feel sad," Chavez urged supporters, especially given the "microscopic differences" between the "yes" and "no" options in a referendum that opponents feared could have meant a plunge toward dictatorship.

Chavez's supporters said he would have used the reforms to deepen grass-roots democracy and more equitably spread Venezuela's oil wealth.

The changes would have created new forms of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map, permit civil liberties to be suspended under extended states of emergency and allow Chavez to seek re-election indefinitely. Now, Chavez will be barred from running again in 2012.

Other changes would have shortened the workday from eight hours to six, created a social security fund for millions of informal laborers and promoted communal councils where residents decide how to spend government funds. The reforms also would have granted Chavez control over the Central Bank and extended presidential terms from six to seven years.

"To those who voted against my proposal, I thank them and congratulate them," Chavez said.

But he also urged calm and restraint. "I ask all of you to go home, know how to handle your victory," Chavez said. "You won it. I wouldn't have wanted that Pyrrhic victory."

Yet he made it clear he would remain a formidable foe.

Echoing words he spoke when as an army officer he was captured and jailed for leading a failed 1992 coup, he said: "For now, we couldn't."

The ever combative Chavez had warned opponents ahead of the vote he would not tolerate attempts to incite violence, and threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. if Washington interfered.

All was reported calm during Sunday's voting but 45 people were detained, most for committing ballot-related crimes like "destroying electoral materials," said Gen. Jesus Gonzalez, chief of a military command overseeing security.

At a polling station in one politically divided Caracas neighborhood, Chavez supporters shouted "Get out of here!" to opposition backers who stood nearby aiming to monitor the vote count. A few dozen Chavistas rode by on motorcycles with bandanas and hats covering their faces, some throwing firecrackers.

Opponents—including Roman Catholic leaders, press freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders—feared the reforms would have granted Chavez unchecked power and threatened basic rights.

Cecilia Goldberger, a 56-year-old voting in affluent eastern Caracas, said Venezuelans did not really understand how Chavez's power grab would affect them. She resented pre-dawn, get-out-the-vote tactics by Chavistas, including fireworks and reveille blaring from speakers mounted on cruising trucks.

"I refuse to be treated like cattle and I refuse to be part of a communist regime," the Israeli-born Goldberger said, adding that she and her businessman husband hope to leave the country.

Chavez, 53, is seen by many as a champion of the poor who has redistributed more oil wealth than any other leader in memory.

Tensions have surged in recent weeks as university students led protests and occasionally clashed with police and Chavista groups.

Lucena called the vote "the calmest we've had in the last 10 years."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8T9PU500&show_article=1

 

[Annie]

I tried waiting up for the results, had to give up at 10! Woke up to find this news! Good day!

 

[Diuretic]

Good for democracy. And good that Chavez has stated he will abide by the decision.

 

[Annie]

Good for democracy. And good that Chavez has stated he will abide by the decision.

Considering the voting equipment, he must have lost by more than 2%, those results were many hours later than they should have been.

 

[Diuretic]

Considering the voting equipment, he must have lost by more than 2%, those results were many hours later than they should have been.

I have no idea what system they use. Here we have paper ballots. But then the whole country here is only 21 m. in total and about 13 m. electors (we have compulsory voting) so I have no idea how long theirs should have taken. Anyway, his actions post-vote will be interesting.

 

[Annie]

I have no idea what system they use. Here we have paper ballots. But then the whole country here is only 21 m. in total and about 13 m. electors (we have compulsory voting) so I have no idea how long theirs should have taken. Anyway, his actions post-vote will be interesting.

all new, all electronic. Compulsory voting? What happens if you don't vote?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Good for democracy. And good that Chavez has stated he will abide by the decision.

Wanna bet he does NOT abide by the vote? I predict this referundem will appear again and again until 2011 and if it fails each time he will seize power.

 

[Dr Grump]

There goes the neocons wet dream out the window. Poor old Dumbya must be spitting tacks....

 

[Doug]

If Venezuelan conservatives are smart, they will pick out those parts of Chavez' program which could genuinely help to lift the poor out of their poverty, and incorporate them into their own platform. Because of their (historically temporary) oil wealth, Venezuealans have a unique opportunity to become a modern society. Their money should go first of all into education.

Conservatives must be the people who defend liberty, and a society with opportunities for everyone, not the people who defend privilege. Until we can transform Latin America along the Chilean model -- a successful capitalist society with steady economic growth -- we are going to see an endless series of Leftist demagogues popping up.

 

[onedomino]

What a relief. I thought this vote would probably go the other way. Some Venezuelans have come to their senses. Chavez got 63 percent of the last presidential vote. It is scary to note that 48 or 49 percent wanted Hugo for life. That bullet just barely missed.

 

[Dr Grump]

Wanna bet he does NOT abide by the vote? I predict this referundem will appear again and again until 2011 and if it fails each time he will seize power.

Totally disagree. He has never done such, no matter how many times US neocons have tried to paint him that way. Has he seized power yet?

 

[onedomino]

There goes the neocons wet dream out the window. Poor old Dumbya must be spitting tacks....

Can you explain? Does this mean you think "neocons" (whoever they are) would not celebrate the outcome of this vote?

 

[Annie]

Can you explain? Does this mean you think "neocons" (whoever they are) would not celebrate the outcome of this vote?

I think he's saying that 'Bush' 'neocons' would like to be able to 'bash' Chavez for the next year or so? You know, so they can get on with their plan to kill more 3rd world people and scare everyone else.

 

[Dr Grump]

Can you explain? Does this mean you think "neocons" (whoever they are) would not celebrate the outcome of this vote?

No, neocons have been selling Chavez as a dictator. That has NEVER been the case. Every time something has gone his way, you hear the shills from the US saying "it's a fix" (note, I say neocons from the US - most normal Americans and us folk from outside your border have NEVER believed that)...and low and behold, he holds an election, loses it, and goes "hey, I lost". There goes the dictatorship theory out the window. Now what are the Bush neocon cabal gonna say? Because whether you like it or not, if he was a dictator he would have "won" hell or high water. He didn't. He has said he didn't. Now what are the neocons gonna do to demonise him? "Chavez sticks by election results!!! See, we told you he was a dictator.. (pregnant pause) um...isn't he?"

Excuse my gloating (and I may be yet proved wrong!!), but I for one was not surprised at ALL by Chavez's response to this election. I bet a million bucks the neocons were...

 

[Dr Grump]

I think he's saying that 'Bush' 'neocons' would like to be able to 'bash' Chavez for the next year or so? You know, so they can get on with their plan to kill more 3rd world people and scare everyone else.

No, see above. You guys have always been wrong about Chavez. his reaction to this latest poll proves that...

 

[Annie]

No, see above. You guys have always been wrong about Chavez. his reaction to this latest poll proves that...

If you don't think his plan was to establish a dictatorship, what do you think it was?

 

[Dr Grump]

If you don't think his plan was to establish a dictatorship, what do you think it was?

Umm......put forward his manifesto and let the public decide? Let me ask you this....Name one - just one - dictatorship that has ever lost an election...

 

[Annie]

Umm......put forward his manifesto and let the public decide? Let me ask you this....Name one - just one - dictatorship that has ever lost an election...

As you say, time will prove one of us wrong. On my part, I think he realized there was too big a gap between the Si and No. The deficit could not be made up. Even Stalin had to take several steps back before moving forward.

 

[Gunny]

Totally disagree. He has never done such, no matter how many times US neocons have tried to paint him that way. Has he seized power yet?

From the original article: He was jailed for trying to do just that in 1992.

 

[Dr Grump]

From the original article: He was jailed for trying to do just that in 1992.

Exactly...and since then??