CARACAS, Venezuela — A Venezuelan legislative committee voted to lower the voting age and protect gay rights in a expansion of President Chavez’s plan to rewrite the country’s constitution.

Venezuelans would gain the right to vote at age 16 under the proposed changes, down from the current age of 18, and discrimination based on sexual orientation would be formally outlawed in the constitution, according to a statement on the National Assembly’s Web site.

The Chavez-controlled National Assembly is likely trying to expand the voter base and tap increased support for the president’s socialist “Bolivarian revolution” among younger Venezuelans, the head of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, Riordan Roett, said.

“The assumption is that the younger people are going to be Bolivarians,” Mr. Roett said in a telephone interview. “They are going to be the ones whose families have benefited from Chavez’s social programs.”

During a session Wednesday, the mixed committee for constitutional reform added six more changes to the 33 in the president’s original proposal unveiled in August. Mr. Chavez’s plan would eliminate presidential term limits, do away with central bank autonomy, and introduce new definitions for private property, which critics have called a power grab.

During a rally for Mr. Chavez’s Unified Venezuelan Socialist Party, the president said citizens should turn out to vote and ignore efforts by the opposition to encourage abstentions. Mr. Chavez said the average age among the party’s 5.7 million members is now 35 years old and will likely fall should voters approve the plan to lower the voting age.

“It’s a very young party,” Mr. Chavez said.

The legislative committee will send the proposed constitutional changes to the full assembly next week, where it will be discussed for 15 days. Once approved there, it will go to a national referendum, possibly as early as December.