Caracas - Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez said late Sunday that "Goliath won," as a constitutional reform to allow the unlimited re-election of the president was passed in a referendum.

"Goliath won, the Venezuelan state with the full power of the state won," Lopez told the television channel CNN en espanol.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had campaigned very heavily in favour of the proposal, which opened the door for him to seek to remain in power 1999-2019 and beyond. The proposal was passed with over 54 per cent of the votes, according to the first official results issued by electoral authorities.

Lopez, a former mayor of the Caracas municipality of Chacao and a leader of the opposition party Nuevo Tiempo, denounced the elections as a "violation of the constitution," an "abuse of the institutions of the state," and an "unequal electoral campaign."

Looking to the future, however, he pointed out that the opposition has made the most of the issue of constitutional reform to position itself as a long-term alternative to Chavez.

Lopez considered the way in which diverse opposition groups coalesced against Chavez as the silver lining of the cloud, saying: "We won by achieving the organization of thousands, of hundreds of thousands of young people in all corners of Venezuela."

In the run-up to the constitutional referendum of December 2007 - which Chavez lost by a marrow margin - the student movement emerged as a factor to unify and strengthen the opposition to the president.

No major incidents were reported on election day and the referendum was followed by many international observers, according to Venezuelan electoral authorities. However, the opposition has long denounced the use of state funds to favour the pro-government camp. (dpa)