CARACAS: With President Hugo Chavez in Cuba recovering from cancer surgery, Venezuelans are debating what can be done if he isn't back in time for his January 10 swearing in to another six-year term.
Debate in the last days has swirled around key articles of Venezuela's 1999 constitution, which socialist ex-paratrooper Chavez approved in his first year in office.
Chavez supporters claim that their leader can be sworn in late, even though opposition leaders will likely insist on holding a new presidential vote.
"Forget January 10," National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello said Saturday. "That is not the date, unless President Chavez decides so voluntarily... read your constitutions carefully."
Article 231 of Venezuela's constitution states that the president-elect takes office on January 10 "in a swearing-in ceremony before the National Assembly". Should circumstances prevent the ceremony from taking place, the president-elect takes the oath of office before the Supreme Court.
And Article 234 says that in cases of the president's "temporary absence", the vice president shall fill in for up to 90 days, and the National Assembly can extend that for a further 90 days.
According to the constitution, an "absolute absence" includes death, resignation or an incapacitating illness.
"January 10 is not the day that determines his absolute absence," Cabello said at a public event Saturday. "I'm not a lawyer, but I'm very sure of this and that is in accordance with the constitution.
According to this interpretation, Chavez could take his oath of office later than January 10.
Article 233 also states that if there is an "absolute absence" of the president-elect, there will be a new presidential election within 30 days -- and the head of the National Assembly, in this case Cabello, would serve as interim president.
And if there is an "absolute absence" during a president's first four years of his six-year term, then the vice president takes office and an election is held within 30 days. The vote winner will serve the remaining time in that presidential term.
Cabello said the constitution "does not say when... or how" the president-elect can be sworn in by the Supreme Court.
Analysts said Chavez could not take an oath of office abroad, even if it is at a Venezuelan embassy with members of the Supreme Court present.
Ricardo Antela, a constitutional lawyer, said only one development could delay the swearing-in ceremony: "if by January 10 we have medical certainty, made public and confirmed by the National Assembly, that the president will recover." Then a new inauguration date must be set.
Any delay "would create an enormous governing crisis", he said.
Cabello "would become interim president without holding elections -- on the expectation that Chavez is returning -- and keep power without having been elected, which would amount to a coup d'etat", Antela said.
Furthermore, it is not up to Cabello -- who has a conflict of interest -- to determine whether the National Assembly should authorise an extension of Chavez's stay abroad, said constitutional attorney Tulio Alvarez.
The face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a firebrand critic of US "imperialism", Chavez, 58, asserted before embarking on his arduous re-election campaign earlier this year that he was cancer-free.
But he was later forced to admit he had suffered a recurrence of the disease. He returned to Cuba, a key Venezuelan ally, for surgery and follow-up treatment.
Venezuela, which sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves, has never confirmed the president's cancer type, nor which organs are affected, but doctors removed a tumour from his pelvic region last year.
Before flying to Havana, Chavez designated Vice President Nicolas Maduro -- a former bus driver and union activist -- as his political heir.
- AFP/al
Venezuelans debate Chavez inauguration
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Venezuelans debate Chavez inauguration
