Chavez set to win Sunday’s election

Hugo Chavez, seeking another presidential term in an election on Sunday, is telling Venezuelans this is only the beginning of his effort to remake Venezuela as a socialist oil power.

Hugo Chavez, seeking another presidential term in an election on Sunday, is telling Venezuelans this is only the beginning of his effort to remake Venezuela as a socialist oil power.

Chavez predicts a “hurricane” victory that will secure a mandate for zero compromise on policies that inspire both adulation and despair. Having survived a coup, a recall referendum, a general strike and clashes with the Roman Catholic Church, business community and opposition media, he has entrenched his power and sharpened left-right divides beyond Venezuela’s borders.

His main challenger, tough-talking state governor Manuel Rosales, trailed far behind in an AP-Ipsos poll last month, but nonetheless has galvanised a fractured opposition movement of millions desperately hoping he can unseat Chavez.

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“A new era will be born next Sunday,” Chavez told a sea of supporters clad in Chavista red at another rally. “There is no room in Venezuela for any other plan besides the Bolivarian Revolution.”

Observers from the European Union, the Carter Center and the Organisation of American States will monitor the polls.

–NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON