Chavez: I will be president until 2019

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that he would be the country’s leader for another eight years as he sees himself as the winner of the 2012 presidential election.

“I will be elected in December 2012. It is written,” Chavez told thousands of his supporters in the capital Caracas on the “National Democracy Day” on Sunday as he sought a mandate for another six-year term in office in the next presidential election, AFP reported.

The 56-year-old president, who has been in power since 1999, also hinted that the next term in office would be his last in Venezuela.

“I will be your servant until 2019 and then, good-bye,” said Chavez.

Chavez assumed his first presidential office in February 1999 and reelected twice for six-year terms under Venezuela’s 2000 constitution.

He made the remarks as Supporters of Venezuela’s government were staging a rally in the streets of the capital to mark the anniversary of a popular uprising that overthrew a dictatorship in the South American country in 1958.

January 23 marks the anniversary of the ouster of former Venezuelan dictator Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez.

Earlier on Sunday, opponents of the government held a demonstration in the eastern part of the capital, many criticizing last month’s decision by Venezuela’s National Assembly to grant Chavez the power to pass laws by decree for 18 months.