In 2007, the Bolivarian government set up a constitutional commission to review the 1999 constitution and suggest potential amendments to be made to it. Led by the prominent pro-Chávez intellectual Luis Britto García, it suggested measures that would have increased many of the president's powers, for instance increasing the presidential term limit to seven years, allowing the president to run for election indefinitely and centralizing powers in the executive. The government put the suggested changes to a public referendum in December 2007. Abstention rate was high however, with 44% of registered voters not turning out, and in the end the proposed changes were rejected by 51% of votes. This would prove to the first electoral loss that Chávez had faced in the thirteen electoral contests held since he took power, due to the top-down nature of the changes, as well as general public dissatisfaction with "the absence of internal debate on its content, as well as dissatisfaction with the running of the social programmes, increasing street crime, and with corruption within the government".
in 2007 the bolivarian government set up a constitutional commission to review the 1999 constitution and suggest potential amendments to be made to it led by the prominent pro-chávez intellectual luis britto garcía it suggested measures that would have increased many of the president's powers for instance increasing the presidential term limit to seven years allowing the president to run for election indefinitely and centralizing powers in the executive the government put the suggested changes to a public referendum in december 2007 abstention rate was high however with 44% of registered voters not turning out and in the end the proposed changes were rejected by 51% of votes this would prove to the first electoral loss that chávez had faced in the thirteen electoral contests held since he took power due to the top-down nature of the changes as well as general public dissatisfaction with "the absence of internal debate on its content as well as dissatisfaction with the running of the social programmes increasing street crime and with corruption within the government"