CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez suffered a stinging defeat today in a vote on constitutional changes that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and solidify his bid to transform this major U.S. oil provider into a socialist state.
Voters defeated the sweeping measures by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout just 56 percent.
“This was a photo finish,” Chavez said immediately after the vote, adding that unlike past Venezuelan governments, his respects the people’s will.
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.
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