New Delhi: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will quit office five years from now, because he lost Sunday's referendum.
However, Chavez, who was speaking to his supporters in the capital, has promised to work without rest until his last day in office.
"As I told you before December 2, I have been thinking a lot these past few days and I have to leave government in the year 2012. I have to go, you didn't approve the reform, well I have to go, I have to go," he said.
Venezuelans narrowly rejected Chavez's bid to overhaul the constitution and enshrine socialism as a state priority in a referendum vote on Sunday.
The reforms would also have allowed him to stay in power for as long he kept winning elections.
Voters balked at a reform they felt put too much power in Chavez's hands and eroded private property rights in the Number 4 oil exporter to the United States.
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