Opinion - Editorials   

Bloodied but determined

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez negated the accusation that he has a dictatorial mindset when he accepted with good grace the defeat in a referendum on constitutional reforms. A proposal to do away with the term limit for the head of state, which was only one element in a 69-point reform package, was blown completely out of proportion to back up the allegation that Mr. Chavez wanted to rule for the rest of his life. As unbiased commentators have observed, the removal of the ban on a President serving more than two terms does not necessarily mean that voters will give him another six years in office. While Mr. Chavez did resort to overheated rhetoric to denounce those who campaigned against the reform package, there was no evidence that he used his large mass of die-hard supporters to intimidate rivals. Given their victory, the conglomerate of parties that opposed the reform package had no choice but to acknowledge the fairness of the vote. The manner in which the referendum was conducted also shows that Venezuelan democracy has come of age under the Chavista dispensation. For the first time, external observers were not allowed to supervise the polls and the main proponents of the ‘No’ vote were newly minted political parties rather than the old discredited formations representing the elite. A significant number of the opposition leaders are leftists who do not reject the social justice component of the reform package. Their main objective was to check a strongman who they believed was bent on undermining democratic principles.

Mr. Chavez has declared that his referendum defeat will not deter him from continuing to push for the Bolivarian Revolution. Such a positive outlook appears warranted not only because the margin of defeat was narrow (49 per cent in favour of the reform, 51 per cent against) but on account of other factors as well. Almost three million voters did not participate in the exercise. Had they voted, it is surmised, the opposition’s share of the total vote might not have been very different from the 41 per cent it scored in the 2006 presidential election. The numbers suggest that many of those who abstained were Chavistas who had apprehensions or reservations about what the President was trying to push through. He did not give his people enough time to debate and think through the implications of a restructuring package overloaded with political, economic, and social content. The charismatic Venezuelan leader had miscalculated but, paradoxically, the referendum defeat reinforces his democratic credentials.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Missile defence a long way off
Bloodied but determined
Afraid of text and democracy
Behind the sparkle in Gujarat
Oxford liberals stumped by free speech
French parents back smacking
Corrections and clarifications
Modi's remarks
On December 6
Malaysia imbroglio
Caring for the aged

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu