There will be two names on the ballot papers when Venezuelans go to the polls this Sunday, but it is a third that lingers on voters' lips as they prepare to choose their next president: Hugo Chavez.
The charismatic and controversial socialist leader whose death on 5 March precipitated the bitter emergency election campaign of the past few weeks will cast a long shadow over whichever man succeeds him.
That man is likely to be the country's acting President and Chavez's anointed heir, 50-year-old Nicolas Maduro, who, with his bellicose rhetoric and questionable campaign style, is expected to trounce the opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, this weekend. Opinion polls have kept the socialist candidate more than 10 percentage points ahead of his rival throughout the brief campaign, which came to a close on Thursday with a pair of competing rallies.
Michael D. Shoesmith
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