Chavez vows to defy Venezuelan polls on referendum

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez vowed Tuesday to defy polls and easily win a weekend referendum on allowing him to rule for as long as he keeps winning elections.

The anti-U.S. president who hopes to lead Venezuela for decades and wants to turn the OPEC nation into a Cuba-inspired socialist state is in his toughest vote fight since he was first elected president nine years ago.

The constitutional overhaul that goes to a referendum vote Sunday proposes scrapping term limits for the president and allowing him to directly control currency reserves and pick loyalists to powerful regional posts.

Polls released in the last few days show Chavez at best in a technical tie and possibly trailing by as much as 10 percentage points. A new survey released Tuesday put the "Yes" and "No" camps each with 50 percent support among voters who have already decided how they will cast their ballots.

The survey by Datos, a respected local polling company, also said one in three Venezuelans were undecided or did not plan to vote, meaning turnout will be crucial to the outcome.

Chavez promised a win by a "knockout" at a rally of women supporters by activating a get-out-the vote machine that has delivered him resounding victories at an average of almost one a year since taking office in 1999.

"We have to work, work very hard in the machinery," he said, reinforcing his campaign-long message that abstention was the biggest challenge to his victory.

He told the women, who held up "Yes" placards," they should drink coffee, eat chocolate and stay awake through Saturday night -- just like the nights when they gave birth -- to ensure they were up early and getting backers to the polls en masse.

With strong support among the majority poor for lavishing record oil income on roads and food subsidies, Chavez also has a folksy style that boosts his popularity in a nation where traditional politicians are often considered aloof.

Chavez told the crowd in a flirty whisper that he likes it when a lady says "yes" to him. The women giggled and he sang a ballad of young love and blew kisses.

CHAVEZ YES, REFORM NO

Chavez won reelection in a landslide a year ago. But his reform package has raised fears among many moderate supporters that his declared 21st century socialism will leave Venezuela looking too much like the communist Cuba of his mentor Fidel Castro.

Former political allies have joined university students, opposition parties, religious leaders and rights groups in condemning his reforms as authoritarian.

Still, the "No" camp is fractured and has far less money than Chavez's campaign.

While Chavez has flown from rally to rally and appeared in hours-long TV interviews, there have been only a few small, sometimes violent, demonstrations against him this week.

"A media and publicity bombardment as well as the difference in resources between the government and the opposition could be decisive," Joseph Saade of Datos said.

But he added that for the first time in a national vote involving Chavez, he was unable to predict the outcome.

"There's no precedent," he said. "It's the first time Chavez ... faces a vote without a lead for the government."

Chavez dismissed negative polls as part of a U.S.-backed plot to manipulate public opinion and spark protests.

"We are all sure even if we beat them by 10 points, or 20 or 50 that they will say we stole the election and will try to destabilize (the government)," he said.