Uphill Battle For Chavez In Venezuela Vote -Polls

Chavez, who has been in power for a decade, must leave office in 2013 unless he wins the referendum planned for February.

Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, may have a tough time convincing voters to pass a referendum next month that would allow him to run for re-election, two polls show.

Chavez, who has been in power for a decade, must leave office in 2013 unless he wins the referendum planned for February that would remove a clause from the constitution limiting presidents to two six-year terms.

The charismatic former soldier argues he needs more time in office to build what he calls 21st-century socialism based on a strong state.

But a survey by pollsters Consultores 21 conducted in December and seen by Reuters on Tuesday found 56.8 percent of people planning to vote oppose the referendum, while 41.8 percent support the change.

In another December poll, received by Reuters from Datanalysis on Monday, 52 percent said they would vote against the amendment with just 37.7 percent supporting it.

Despite approval ratings of about 60 percent, Chavez failed to win approval of a referendum in 2007 on a wide-ranging package of political reforms, including allowing him to run for another term, designed to speed up his drive to build a socialist state in Venezuela.

He called for the referendum immediately after elections for governors and mayors in November, apparently hoping to catch the opposition off guard.

Pollsters say they expect the gap to close between support and opposition to the constitutional change as the campaign picks up steam before the vote.

Chavez wants the vote held on Feb. 15, but the electoral authority has yet to set a final date.

Chavez has said he will focus on getting out the vote rather than trying to convince undecided voters to support him in this campaign.

Consultores 21 conducted 1,500 face-to-face interviews in the third week of December. The poll has a 3.2 percentage point margin of error. Datanalysis interviewed 1,300 voters in their homes Dec. 6-16. The poll has a margin of error of 2.72 percentage points.