By Prensa Latina,
Caracas : Venezuela’s parliament next week will discuss a bill by the ruling United Socialist Party seeking to amend the constitution for an unlimited term for the president, sources have said.
The bill was tabled in the National Assembly Tuesday by President Hugo Chavez’s United Socialist Party seeking to remove the two-term constitutional limit for the president and allow him to seek re-elections for any number of times.
The bill, after its passage through parliament, will be placed for a countrywide referendum. If approved in the referendum, Chavez will stand for re-election for a third term in 2012.
The leftist leader had said Sunday he was directing his party to seek a “constitutional amendment and re-election of the president of the republic,” adding he was “ready to govern through 2021.”
In December 2007, a similar move was rejected in a referendum.
The president launched his campaign for the referendum this week after last month’s regional elections in which opposition leaders won key states while Chavez allies swept most municipalities.
Chavez was first elected president in February 1999 and won a second six-year term in 2006.