In Pictures

In Pictures: Venezuela’s campaigning closes

Elections rarely provide as stark a choice between opposing ideological visions as the one in Venezuela today.

Supporters of opposition candidate Henrique Capriles rally in the capital. The youth vote will be crucial if Capriles, 40, is to beat the incumbent Hugo Chavez, 58, on Sunday.

Politics in Venezuela is not a spectator sport. In an election where voters can choose from two starkly different visions for the future, people on both sides of the political divide took to the streets in huge numbers as campaigning closed Thursday night.

The government of Hugo Chavez promises to continue building socialism by redistributing oil wealth, forging new international alliances, and expropriating assets from “monopolies”.

Led by Henrique Capriles, the opposition wants a social democratic approach, restoring traditional alliances with the US and Europe, an end to foreign oil subsidies and a more business friendly climate.

Governing for 14 years, the Chavez government has reduced poverty and inequality, but crime and inflation have risen. Poverty dropped by 30 per cent between 1995 and 2005, according to the World Bank, while extreme poverty dropped from 32 per cent to 19 per cent. Venezuela has one of the lowest measures of inequality in Latin America.

Crime increased – with the country recording 4,550 murders in 1998 and 19,336 by 2011, according to the Brookings Institute.

As of midnight on Thursday, all campaigning has formally stopped as voters prepare to go to the polls on Sunday for what could be a close race.

Whoever wins on Sunday, Venezuela will remain an extremely polarised society.

An opposition supporter holds a photo of Franklin Brito, a man who apparently had his farm seized by the government. He died during a hunger strike last year, backers of the opposition said.

Crime, corruption and inflation have increased since Chavez took office 14 years ago, according to the opposition.

In the slums or "barrios" on the hills around Caracas, support for Chavez runs high. The government recently build a cable car at San Agustin del Sur so residents wouldn(***)t have to walk an hour and a half down the mountain to get to work.

Poverty and inequality have declined since Chavez began redistributing oil wealth, according to government supporters.

Employees of the government and poor people who depend on social programmes from the state are threatened with losing their jobs or benefits if they don(***)t show support for Chavez, critics say.

Some analysts believe this election plays out along class lines, with the poor supporting Chavez while the middle classes and elites back the opposition.

Dressed in socialist red, Chavistas rallied in the capital on Thursday prior the formal close of campaigning. Many of the demonstrators were state employees bused in from other states.