Hugo Ch\ufffdvez, a former paratroop lieutenant-colonel who led an unsuccessful coup d'\ufffdtat in 1992, was elected President in December 1998 on a platform that called for the creation of a "Fifth Republic", a new constitution, a new name ("the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela"), and a new set of social relations between socioeconomic classes. In 1999, voters approved a referendum on a new constitution, and in 2000, re-elected Ch\ufffdvez, also placing many members of his Movement for the Fifth Republic political party in the National Assembly. Supporters of Ch\ufffdvez call the process symbolised by him the Bolivarian Revolution, and organise themselves in open, local, participatory assemblies called Bolivarian Circles.
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In August, 2004, Ch\ufffdvez faced a recall referendum, but 59% of the voters voted to allow Ch\ufffdvez to remain in office. Some elements of the political opposition and certain foreign governments (including the United States of America, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom) disputed the fairness of the vote count. Although both the Organization of American States and the Carter Center certified the voting results as representative of the actual votes cast, the voting process itself wasn't certified (although Jimmy Carter did state that in his opinion it was fairer than the voting process in Florida during the 2000 US Presidential election).