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Campaign Over, Venezuelans Are Left to Tensely Wait (and Tweet)

By ELIAS E. LOPEZ
Supporters of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela at a campaign rally this week.

There were no debates but plenty of vitriol, and now Venezuela's intense and sometimes surreal presidential campaign is officially over.

The two candidates in the oil-rich country, President Hugo Chávez and Henrique Capriles Radonski, ended their campaigns on Thursday with huge rallies and one final pitch during televised interviews before the polls open on Sunday.

Supporters of Henrique Capriles Radonski, the opposition candidate in Sunday's presidential election in Venezuela.

After nearly 14 years in charge, Mr. Chávez is facing his strongest political challenge in Mr. Capriles as his government struggles with rampant crime, food shortages and high inflation. He still enjoys strong backing among many of the poor who have benefited f rom his social programs, but with that support somewhat eroded, the fate of his 21st century socialist revolution may hang in the balance.

As my colleague William Neuman reports today, polls give no clear winner and many Venezuelans are “anxious about casting their ballot out of fear that voting against the president can mean being fired from a government job, losing a government-built home or being cut off from social welfare benefits.”

“There is wide agreement that Mr. Chávez is vulnerable as never before,” he writes. “Handicapping the election is complicated by the angst felt by many Venezuelans that a simple vote for the opposition could bring retaliation.”

But over the last several months, Mr. Chávez, 58, and Mr. Capriles, 40, engaged in a fierce battle and now the country is ready to vote.

On Thursday, under an unrelenting rain in Caracas, Mr. Chávez addressed thousands of his supporters, most dressed in the red of his political m ovement, and urged them to turn “this Bolivarian avalanche that has traveled the country” into an “avalanche of votes next Sunday.”

“We'll give a beating to the bourgeoisie,” Mr. Chavez roared.

Ever the master showman, he then led the crowd with a traditional song dedicated to Venezuela. “I feel your light and your aroma in my skin” he sang.

Hugo Chávez sang to his supporters in Caracas on Thursday.

His campaign came under attack after the rally, with the opposition charging that most people in attendance had been bused in from all over the country. A Capriles supporter on Twitter sought to drive the point home with the help of Photoshop.

But Mr. Chávez waged a strong campaign despite a fight with cancer, although ques tions still remain about his health. He did follow a lighter schedule than in past elections, choosing his appearances strategically and keeping his famously lengthy speeches in check. He also never mentioned his opponent by name, opting to taunt him with insults like “imperialist” and “majunche,” which roughly translates to slob or loser.

Mr. Capriles, on the other hand, avoided confronting the president directly, saying Venezuelans were tired of Mr. Chávez's insults and ready for someone to unite the deeply polarized country. The young governor of Miranda, one of the country's most populous states, also visited hundreds of cities and small towns in a campaign that began “casa por casa” â€" or house by house â€" and succeeded in siphoning support from Chavista strongholds.

An annotated Google map produced by the newspaper El Universal shows the sites visited by Mr. Capriles in blue, and by Mr. Chavez in red.


View Recorrido de los candidatos presidenciales in a larger map

Though the opposition this time is united under the young and vibrant Mr. Capriles, Mr. Chávez still has vast advantages, including tight control over a state apparatus that includes the coffers of the national oil company PDVSA.

During an interview Thursday night with an opposition channel, Mr. Capriles looked directly at the camera and, with a hoarse voice, said, “I want you to think about the life that you have and the life that you could have. We all know that we can do better.”

Interview with Henrique Capriles Radonski on the last day of the campaign in Venezuela.

Mr. Capriles wore his signature baseball cap with the colors of the Venezuelan flag â€" an accessory that earned him a rebuke from election officials for violating campaign laws that forbid candidates from using national symbols. As Francisco Toro, who blogs at Caracas Chronicles, explai ned in a post on our Latitude blog in August, the cap became a symbol of its own among the opposition and even got its own account on Twitter.

Ironically, an update to that account on Friday reminded voters to respect campaign rules and not to wear the popular cap to the polls.

Social networks have become useful tools for political activism in Venezuela, where Mr.Chávez's government has been gradually dismantling more independent outlets and building a state-run media empire, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

But the government has also embraced Twitter and Facebook to counter opponents and rally supporters. In June, Mr. Chavez even awarded a young woman a new home for becoming the three millionth follower of @chavezcandanga.

So even if the presidential campaign is officially over in the physical world, the battle rages online, where many vent, speculate and argue while they tensely wait for the outcome.