BY TIM JOHNSON

 CARACAS -- Hungry for change, Venezuelan voters adopted a sweeping new
 political system on Wednesday, approving a new constitution that broadens the
 power of President Hugo Chavez, abolishes one chamber of Congress and even
 renames the country.

 The vote marked a major triumph for Chavez, a former military coup leader, who
 may now fulfill his dream of governing until 2013.

 Fireworks lit up the Caracas night sky as electoral authorities announced that
 partial returns showed voters favoring the new constitution by more than a 2-to-1
 margin. With 82.5 percent of the vote counted, 71 percent had voted ``yes'' to 29
 percent voting ``no.''

 ``A new republic is born today,'' Chavez said. ``This is a historic day, a day that
 will define the next 200 years in Venezuela.''

 This South American nation, a major supplier of crude oil to the United States,
 will now be known as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, after independence
 hero Simon Bolivar. It will have a single-chamber National Assembly instead of a
 Senate and Chamber of Deputies, and the government grip on the economy will
 tighten.

 Bigger changes may be in the offing. Since the current political system was
 scrapped, new elections must be held by March for nearly every post in the
 country, including the presidency. The populist and radical forces behind
 ``Hurricane Hugo'' said they would capture most of the 330 or so city halls, 23
 governorships and 175 National Assembly seats soon to be at stake. Chavez's
 landslide reelection is taken for granted.

 `WILL LOSE ALL'

 ``The opposition will lose all,'' said Segundo Melendez of the Movement Toward
 Socialism.

 After weeks of railing at Roman Catholic prelates, business owners, newspaper
 publishers and others as ``whiners,'' ``stateless degenerates'' and ``screeching
 pigs'' for opposing the new charter, Chavez adopted a far more conciliatory stance
 in a televised address to the nation in the evening.

 ``Let us all unite -- businessmen, Catholics, Protestants, workers, the
 unemployed, men, women, old, young, all of us,'' he said.

 In a somber note, Chavez said torrential rains and severe flooding battering
 northern Venezuela had killed at least 37 people.

 Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceño said the rains had also injured 80 people and
 destroyed 500 homes.

 Chavez, a political phenomenon watched across the rest of Latin America, has
 promised to improve the lives of the eight out of 10 Venezuelans who live in
 poverty. While the poor see him as a savior, the small upper class views him as
 dangerously authoritarian.

 CALL FOR UNITY

 Even leaders of the governing Patriotic Pole coalition urged Chavez to work toward
 national consensus.

 ``The refounding of the republic requires unity among Venezuelans,'' said
 Aristobulo Isturiz, a veteran leftist politician and vice president of the 131-seat
 Constituent Assembly that drew up the new charter.

 The new charter, which replaces the 1961 Constitution, gives Chavez broad
 powers to promote military officers, allows for the election of judges and obligates
 the state to provide free education, low-cost housing and health care for
 Venezuela's 23 million citizens. It bans privatization of the huge state oil company
 and tightens central control of the economy.

 Chavez, 45, who came to office 10 months ago, has said the clock won't start
 ticking on his presidency until he wins next year's presidential election, which is
 likely to be held in late February or in March. The new charter would permit him to
 seek reelection in 2006, holding power till early 2013.

 Some aides said they hope the shattered opposition can regroup and provide
 some measure of counterbalance to Chavez, but others gloated at the virtual
 demise of a two-party system.

 ``The traditional parties . . . have dug their own grave,'' said William Ojeda, a
 member of the Constituent Assembly.

 The upcoming campaign may help divert attention from a dismal economic
 panorama. Despite soaring oil prices, Venezuela's economy shrank by 9.5
 percent in the first half of the year. Some 2,663 workers are losing their jobs each
 day, exacerbating the worst jobless rate in four decades, according to a study by
 CENDA, a local economic research center.