BY TIM JOHNSON

 CARACAS -- Barely nine months into his term, President Hugo Chavez is
 celebrating the possibility of staying in power more than a decade, thanks to an
 agreement in the Constitutional Assembly last week to extend presidential terms
 to six years and allow reelection.

 ``When we turn over the government, in the year 2013, God willing, Venezuela will
 be totally changed,'' Chavez said after the Assembly's decision.

 Over the weekend, Chavez suggested that Venezuelans should be asked in a
 referendum Dec. 15 if his presidential mandate should be validated with a new
 snap election in which, he declared, his opponents wouldn't stand a chance: ``I'd
 knock out every last one of them.''

 If Chavez sounds triumphant these days, it's because his popularity remains
 sky-high and the Constitutional Assembly is about to finish a proposed national
 charter largely cut to his measure. While the new charter changes Venezuela's
 form of government in some significant ways, what Chavez most sought from the
 Assembly was the possibility of his own long-term rule.

 ``The Assembly members should turn off the lights. . . . The job is done,'' a
 columnist for the El Universal newspaper, Milagros Socorro, wrote Monday.

 Chavez apparently believes that the clock doesn't tick on his mandate until
 Venezuela's new constitution takes effect, probably in January. Thus, his first
 six-year term would begin then, a second term would begin in 2006 if he is
 reelected, and power would go to a successor in early 2013.

 CURRENT LAW

 Under current law, the president is limited to one five-year term and must then
 wait 10 years to run for reelection.

 ``In general, what we are seeing is a great effort to legalize the concentration of
 power in the hands of President Chavez,'' political scientist Carlos Romero said.

 Opinion polls give Chavez the support of at least three-quarters of Venezuelans,
 many of whom view him as a political savior. A minority, mostly well-off
 Venezuelans, see him as a potential populist dictator.

 Those who back Chavez vigorously dispute charges that the Constitutional
 Assembly has been a rubber-stamp body, noting that it has sharply altered
 several elements of the proposed constitution that Chavez submitted when it
 began its work Aug. 3.

 Against Chavez's wishes, it has proposed a single-chamber legislature, rejected
 his plan to rename the country the ``Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,'' and
 included language that some see as allowing media censorship.

 FOLLOWING CUES

 But it has followed his cues in lowering the workweek from 48 hours to 40 hours,
 banning private pension funds, empowering the president to control military
 promotions, and permitting the president to dissolve the legislature if it rejects his
 proposal for vice president.

 The proposed charter is perhaps most notable for its sheer wordiness -- some 390
 articles -- and its detailed description of government functions.

 ``All that's lacking is to put in downtown parking regulations,'' said a local media
 mogul, who asked to remain anonymous.

 In a rush to create a new political order, Chavez pushed for speedy completion of
 the charter, leading to what some critics say is slapdash work. Originally, the
 Assembly was given a six-month mandate, but Chavez ordered his followers to
 finish in three months. Assembly President Luis Miquilena said the body will wrap
 up on Nov. 14.

 That leaves only a few days for members to debate and vote anew on the
 proposed charter's most complex issues, such as the role of the armed forces in
 society and the nation's economic model.

 Romero, the political scientist, said the proposed constitution -- by some counts,
 the 26th in Venezuela's history -- may not endure any more than previous ones.

 ``This constitution will last only as long as Chavez,'' Romero said.