MANAGUA – Nicaragua’s governing Sandinista party celebrated the 30th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the Somoza dictatorship with a massive rally marked by a proposal for a referendum that would allow President Daniel Ortega to run for re-election.

The president, who presided over the event in Managua’s Pope John Paul II Square, called on opposition political forces to work “to have a better constitution.”

Ortega suggested reforming the constitution to allow the recall of elected officials.

“If we’re going to be fair and balanced, let the right of re-election be for everyone and let the people use their votes to reward and punish,” he said, after criticizing lawmakers for opposing a constitutional reform to eliminate term limits for public officials.

Nicaragua’s current charter allows the head of state to serve more than one term, but not consecutively.

Ortega let it be understood that he will promote a non-binding referendum – like the one that deposed Honduran President Mel Zelaya wanted to carry out on June 28 when he was ousted – to ask citizens if they want to include the possibility of recall in the national charter.

“Here that can be done without fear, because we can go to a referendum, to a vote of that kind, and people can vote freely, because here the army is not going to repress it but is going to protect the process, and so will the police,” the Sandinista leader said.

The president also wants to convert Nicaragua’s presidential system – the U.S. model – to a parliamentary one.

Constitutional reforms in Nicaragua must be approved in two successive legislatures and with the votes of at least two-thirds of the National Assembly’s 92 members.

The Sandinistas and their allies hold 47 seats.

Ortega, who during the event sang a capella several songs in praise of the 1979 revolution, began his speech by recounting a conversation he had with Fidel Castro, who suggested that he not talk so much because otherwise people at the event would get exhausted.

He also said that he spoke with his Venezuelan counterpart and ally, Hugo Chavez, who excused himself from attending the Sandinista ceremony for “last-minute health problems.”

The political crisis in Honduras has become the chief talking point at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the revolution that toppled U.S.-backed ruler Anastasio Somoza, being mentioned by most of the speakers at the event.

Taking part in the ceremony were Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Zelaya’s foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, and the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, among other dignitaries. EFE