I wonder which country leader gave him this great idea…

(People’s Daily Online) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday said he would call a referendum in 2010 on ending the presidential term limits if he wins another six-year term in December’s election.

He revealed his intention to his supporters who were greeting him upon his return from a foreign tour.

“In the year 2010, when I’m three years into my next term, I will call a referendum” on whether he should stay on and whether the constitution bar on running for subsequent terms would be removed, he said.

“No one will have to go around collecting signatures for this (as) I am going to call the referendum myself,” he said, noting the Venezuelan people “should decide on the mandate of the president.”

Updated: Chavez officially announces his intentions to become a term-limitless president.

(The Peninsula) “In the year 2010, when I am three years into my next term, I will call a referendum. I will call a referendum to ask Venezuelans at least two questions,” he said.

Re-election would require an amendment of the Constitution, which was written and ratified under his careful watch. He added that his new presidential term would mark a new phase of his economic and political plan, to transform Venezuela into the Venezuelan Socialist Republic.

“Now, between 2007 to 2021, we have 14 years to plant, deepen the roots and extend the revolution in all directions so that Venezuela becomes the Socialist Bolivarian Republic in every way, for true equality, liberty — a democracy that is deep, of the people, participatory and proactive,” he said.

He outlined the plan, which he named after Simon Bolivar, liberator of Venezuela and much of South America. “One: a new socialist ethic; two, a socialist mode of production, a socialist economy; three, a revolutionary heroic democracy where the power of the people will be the maximum power of the republic; four, supreme social joy; five, a new national geopolitic, decentralised development, development in the fields and development in the cities; six, a new international geopolitic, a multipolar world, a balanced world; seven, Venezuela as an energetic world power, a world oil power,” he said.

“Now comes the Bolivarian hurricane,” Chavez said, referring to the election battle of the next three months, which will, he said, open “the way to a socialist Venezuela in the 21st century.”