Comisión para la Reforma del Estado

The Comisión para la Reforma del Estado (COPRE – Commission for the Reform of the State) was a Presidential Commission created in 1984 by President Jaime Lusinchi to examine the reform of the Venezuelan state and political system.

The 35-member commission included 18 independents, as well 9 members from Democratic Action and 5 from COPEI.

These proposals included direct popular election of Venezuelan state governors and mayors, replacing the previous system of voters choosing a single party slate for all.

This led to an agreement between the two parties, and in June 1988 direct election of mayors, a law on fiscal and administrative decentralization to local governments, and a change in the electoral system from closed list proportional representation (used since 1958) to a mixed system was agreed.

Only with the loss of Democratic Action's absolute majority in Congress in the 1988 Congressional elections, and the popular unrest demonstrated in the early 1989 Caracazo, was the direct election of state governors approved.