Via aljazeera.net -
Venezuela's congress, dominated by the president's allies, has backed constitutional changes that would allow Hugo Chavez to govern indefinitely.
After six hours of debate on Tuesday, Cilia Flores, the National Assembly leader, said Chavez's proposed charter changes, including lifting presidential term limits, received "majority approval".
Flores did not say how many of the assembly's 167 legislators voted for the reforms, but said they were preliminarily approved on first reading with overwhelming support.
Final approval is expected within three months before the "reforms" are put to a public referendum.
But Luis Miquilena, a former mentor to Chavez, urged Venezuelans to reject the proposed constitutional changes, saying the president would use them to govern indefinitely.
Miquilena, who headed a popularly elected, pro-Chavez assembly that drafted Venezuela's existing constitution, called his former ally's new reform proposal "a constitutional fraud" aimed at giving him "perpetual power".
"The essential point of this reform is based on the idea of permitting Mr Chavez to continue in power indefinitely," Miquilena told a news conference.
The 88-year-old former labour leader once was commonly referred to as Chavez's closest adviser. But he quit his cabinet in 2002 and has periodically criticised the president since.
The National Assembly has been firmly pro-Chavez since the opposition boycotted a 2005 vote.
The reforms, if approved, would extend presidential terms from six to seven years and allow Chavez to run again in 2013.
Chavez has said he could serve until 2021 or beyond, but only if the public continues to back him at the ballot box.
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