Venezuelans went to the polls yesterday to vote whether to honour Hugo Chavez’s dying wish for a longtime loyalist to continue his hardline socialism or hand power to a young challenger vowing business-friendly changes.

Acting President Nicolas Maduro had a double-digit lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in most polls heading into election day, buoyed by Chavez’s public blessing before he died from cancer last month. But the gap narrowed in recent days, with one survey putting it at seven percentage points.

Maduro supporters mobilised voters in the rough barrios of Caracas, where the late Chavez is revered as a hero of the poor, sounding a pre-dawn bugle call rousing citizens to get out and vote. Lines formed under a blistering sun at some voting centres, but many were notably shorter than they were at last October’s election, when an ailing Chavez trounced Capriles.

Political strategists said that could mean there would be a surge in voting late in the day or a smaller turnout than there was in Chavez’s final election win last year. Then, a record 80 per cent of registered voters cast ballots following an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign by the Chavista camp.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who trumpets his working-class roots, is promising to deepen Chavez’s “21st century socialism” if he triumphs. Capriles, an athletic 40-year-old who has generated widespread enthusiasm among the opposition, wants to take Venezuela down a more centrist path.

Whoever wins will inherit control of the world’s biggest oil reserves in an Opec nation whose stark political polarisation is one of Chavez’s many legacies. Also at stake is the generous economic aid Chavez showered on left-leaning Latin American governments from Cuba to Bolivia.

Both camps urged supporters to be on alert for fraud, though election observers have endorsed past votes as clean.