The polls have opened in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez's plan to transform the South American country into a socialist state is being put to the toughest electoral test of his nearly 14 years in power.
Chavez's challenger, state governor Henrique Capriles, has united the opposition for what has become a contest between two camps that distrust each other so deeply there are concerns about a close election result being respected.
Hugo Chavez told reporters in Caracas on Saturday the election outcome "won't be the end of the world for anybody." (Tomas Bravo/Reuters) However, the president told a news conference Saturday night that Venezuela is a "mature democratic country," and when asked about the possibility of disputes over the vote, he said he expected both sides to accept the result.
Violence flared sporadically during the campaign, including shootings and rock-throwing during rallies and political caravans.
Two Capriles supporters were shot to death in the western state of Barinas last weekend.
Troops were dispatched across Venezuela to guard thousands of voting centres on Sunday.
If Chavez wins a new six-year term, he gets a free hand to push for an even bigger state role in the economy, further limit dissent and continue to befriend rivals of the United States.
If Capriles wins, a foreign policy shift can be expected, along with an eventual loosening of state economic controls and an increase in private investment.
Henrique Capriles, seen at a campaign rally on Thursday, chose not to comment this weekend on the vote. Under Venezuelan election election law, candidates are prohibited from making political statements in the two days before election day. (Isaac Urrutia/Reuters) Chavez, who has run a low-key campaign because of his battle with cancer, told a huge rally in Caracas this week that he needs another term in office to consolidate social reforms and eradicate poverty.
Chavez said social programs won't survive without him as leader and he has promised to deepen socialist policies if he wins.
During the rally, he shouted to the crowd: "We're going to give the bourgeoisie a beating!"
Capriles has painted himself a centre-leftist, but says the state-owned oil company PDVSA could be better managed. Critics of Chavez complain the company's payroll is full of patronage appointments and that government ministries are burgeoning with do-nothing jobs.
Support for Chavez support has eroded, even in the civil service and among the working poor.
Many people are afraid of increasing violent crime, struggle under 20-per-cent inflation, and are fed up with government corruption.
The CBC's Connie Watson spoke to one man who is voting, but he declined to give his name for fear of losing his job.
"I am a public servant," he said. "The opinion of the Venezuela public servant is not for Chavez."
Capriles has promised to keep social programs in the oil-rich nation, but says he'll stop sending free oil to Venezuela's left-wing allies, and instead will spend the money at home.
Most opinion polls suggest the president will be re-elected, but with a substantially reduced margin from his previous landslide victories.
Hugo Chavez, 58, has been president since 1999. As an army paratroop commander, he led a failed 1992 coup attempt. He was jailed, later pardoned and elected president in 1998. He survived a short-lived 2002 coup. His Bolivarian Revolution movement, named after 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar, is moving Venezuela toward socialism, he says. Chavez has twice won re-election. His only clear electoral loss came in 2007, when voters rejected constitutional changes. Chavez announced in June 2011 that he had a cancerous tumour removed from his pelvic region. He has since undergone another surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. He now says he is cancer-free.
Henrique Capriles, 40, a former state governor, won a first-ever opposition presidential primary in February. Capriles won a congressional seat at age 26. He was a Caracas district mayor and in 2008 defeated a Chavez ally, Diosdado Cabello, to become governor in Miranda state, which includes part of Caracas. Capriles describes his views as centre-left. He says he admires former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's promotion of pro-business policies while also funding social programs for the poor.
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