Venezuelans have voted to lift limits on terms in office for elected officials, allowing socialist President Hugo Chavez to stand for re-election, BBC online reports Monday.
With 94 per cent of votes counted, 54 per cent backed an end to term limits, a National Electoral Council official said.
Mr Chavez has said he needs to stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2012 so he can secure what he calls Venezuelas socialist revolution. Critics say that would concentrate too much power in the presidency.
More than 11 million voters out of almost 17 million who were eligible took part in Sundays referendum. International observers said the ballot was free and fair, and opposition leaders were quoted as saying they would not contest the vote.
Under existing constitutional rules, the president was limited to two six-year terms in office, which meant that Mr Chavez would have had to leave the presidency in three years time.
A proposal to end presidential term limits was one of a package of 69 constitutional changes narrowly rejected in a referendum in late 2007.
The president now faces the daunting task of grappling with the global economic crisis in a country dependent on oil exports, BBC notes.
Venezuela has the highest inflation in Latin America, and there are serious domestic problems such as violent crime that Mr Chavez will need to tackle.
