Venezuela's Chavez in tight vote on his future

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans voted on Sunday in a tight referendum on allowing socialist President Hugo Chavez to stay in power for as long as he keeps winning elections in the OPEC nation.

Chavez, who has spent a decade in power spending freely on schools and clinics for the poor and opposing U.S. influence in Latin America, says he needs at least another 10 years for his revolution to take root in South America's top oil exporter.

Officials from both camps said their early exit polls showed their side had won, although they did not publish their results.

In the weeks before the vote, Chavez maintained a slim lead in opinion polls. But with many Venezuelans deciding late whether to support scrapping term limits, pollsters had said the result was too close to predict and would hinge on which camp's get-out-the-vote machinery worked better.

An ex-paratrooper, Chavez narrowly lost a vote in 2007 to allow him to stand for re-election -- a result he blamed on large abstention among his mainly poor backers.

If he loses his second try he would have to leave office in 2013 or find another way to change the rules in the polarized country.

"My political destiny will be decided today," Chavez said. "This is important for me as a human being and as a soldier in this fight."

Spearheaded by a student movement, the fragmented opposition's campaign slogan was "No is No," referring to the failed 2007 bid to extend the rule of a man they say will cling to power like his friend, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Sunday's turnout was apparently high and voting generally efficient, although some people from each side complained the electronic ballot system showed they had cast a null vote when they had actually voted "Yes" or "No."

Most polls closed as expected at 6 p.m. (5:30 p.m. EST/2230 GMT), but some were allowed to remain open for final voters lining up.

Cars mounted with loudspeakers plied poor slums and rich Caracas suburbs encouraging people to vote all day.

"Chavez should have trained a successor by now, but he hasn't. He wants to stay forever like Fidel Castro," said Maria Mendez, a resident of a Caracas slum who used to back the president but voted against him on Sunday.

SOCIALIST PLANS

Confident of victory this time, Chavez, 54, says a win will reinforce his mandate to forge a socialist state and stand up to U.S. "imperialism." After he won re-election in 2006 he sped up aggressive nationalizations.

But with oil prices more than $100 a barrel lower than last year, Chavez has far less income to spend on supporters.

Venezuela's currency and sovereign debt have lost value in recent months as investors worry he will burn through international reserves to sustain spending.

Chavez has carved out a place for himself as the new standard bearer for anti-U.S. sentiment in the region, wielding cheap oil to counter U.S. free-market proposals.

Leftist allies in Ecuador and Bolivia have joined Chavez in rewriting laws to extend their rule and increase control over economies in the name of the neglected poor majority.

Chavez warned supporters they will lose benefits if he is unable to run again for re-election. In a familiar tactic, he accused the opposition of plotting a coup directed by Washington and planning to cry fraud if he wins.

"If he loses we are in trouble, they will end the social programs," said Ismenia Hurtado, who works in a government soup kitchen and studies nursing in a university opened by Chavez.

Opposition leaders, who say Chavez is an autocrat in one of Latin America's oldest democracies, hoped to capitalize on discontent over high crime rates and soaring living costs -- Venezuela's inflation is among the highest in the world.

But Chavez, whom supporters adoringly call "El Comandante," is resilient. He survived a putsch and national strikes and won all but one election since coming to office in 1999 as an underdog vowing to sweep away corrupt elites.
Reuters