CARACAS -- The head of Venezuela's CNE elections council announced Friday that on Feb. 15 the referendum will be held on the constitutional amendment that would allow President Hugo Chavez and other elected officials to seek as many terms as they wish.

Tibisay Lucena made the announcement after receiving from the National Assembly the bill for the constitutional amendment that Chavez is promoting so he can run for yet another six-year term in 2012.

A fiery critic of U.S. "imperialism," Chavez was first elected in 1998 and has since won two more elections and defeated a recall attempt, each time by a wide margin. But he now is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election again in 2012.

National Assembly speaker Cilia Flores delivered to the CNE the bill for the amendment that the government-dominated legislature passed Wednesday and which, according to the law, must be submitted to a popular vote in the next 30 days.

Thanks in great part to an opposition boycott of the most recent congressional elections, most of the assembly's 167 members are Chavez loyalists.

In a brief address after receiving the bill, CNE chief Lucena confirmed the date of the referendum as Feb. 15.

Even prior to her annoucement, the CNE said that campaigning for the referendum would begin Saturday and conclude at midnight on Feb. 13.

The constitutional amendment promoted by Chavez has aroused the ire of opposition parties who denounce it as "trickery" and accuse the socialist president of wanting to perpetuate himself in power.