It looked like a 1950s TV commercial: an avuncular man in a shiny kitchen explaining to a housewife the wonders of a new fridge. "Feel the lines on it. Nice, eh? And wait till I tell you about the discount."

The price was not just a bargain, it was a socialist bargain, for this was a live broadcast from Venezuela's presidential palace, Miraflores, and Hugo Chávez was selling more than just a fridge. The kitchen was a set to launch a new social campaign, "My well-equipped house", on the eve of an election that could shape the fate of Chávez's socialist revolution.

The president is not on the ballot but on Sunday voters will decide whether to maintain or loosen his grip over the national assembly, a constitutionally powerful body that has been dominated by "chavistas" since 2005. Polls suggest a close fight with a resurgent opposition that boycotted elections last time round.

"Both sides are evenly balanced," said Luis Vicente Leon, director of polling firm Datanalisis. "The country is divided into two practically equal parts." Recent polls have given a slight edge to Chávez's PSUV party.

After 12 years in power, the leftist leader remains popular with many of the poor, but his government is facing bad news: recession, high inflation, creaking public services, a scandal over rotting food, and horrific crime rates that have made Caracas a murder capital.

Analysts say the election will hinge on the government's formidable "red machine" overcoming voter discontent and mobilising its base through the use of oil revenues, control of state institutions and Chávez's charisma.

Enter the fridge. And the dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, oven, microwave and enough accessories to make Martha Stewart proud. The government has promised to import 300,000 consumer durables from China and to sell them at rock-bottom prices.

In the mock kitchen Chávez, 56, a TV natural, flirted with the housewife, commended the Chinese ambassador, who hovered nearby, and addressed viewers directly as he patted the fridge. Capitalist rip-off merchants were cheating the people, he said, but socialism would fix that. "The Chávez price isn't even $450, no … It's $341!" An off-screen audience broke into applause and cheers.

The government has also launched a "good life" credit card to buy food and other goods in state-run stores and a "popular tourism" plan to fly the poor to Angel Falls and other natural wonders.

A state media blitz has tried to turn the election into a referendum on the former tank commander. State TV and radio networks give Chávez blanket coverage and private media are routinely compelled to carry his speeches live. Youth brigades have covered the capital in slogans and factories have churned out mountains of red T-shirts and baseball caps.

"We've produced 36,961 units," beamed Alida Bastidas, a co-ordinator at a state-funded textile cooperative, sweating from the heat of the machines. "Elections always keep us humming."

They also keep some 2 million civil servants busy because they are expected to attend ruling party rallies and donate part of their salary. "This is wrong, I should be at my desk," said one IT worker at a rally in the Catia district of Caracas. "But what can you do?"

Changes in electoral rules will favour the PSUV by giving more weight to sparsely populated rural areas than to urban areas, which have defected to the opposition.

"It's a completely uneven playing field," said Laureano Marquez, a prominent opposition commentator. "State institutions don't even pretend to be independent anymore. Everything starts and ends with Chávez."

The usually fractious opposition had united, however, and focused attention on local issues, said Marquez. "Chávez is not dominating the agenda as before. He's been forced to talk about rotting food and crime."

Many of the poor remain grateful for social programmes that halved poverty, according to official statistics, and provided free education and health clinics staffed by Cuban medics.

"Of course Chavez is going to win. He is the only president who has done good things here," said Alejandra Qijada, a mother of five at a Chávez rally. When the president arrived atop a bus, blowing kisses, the crowd exploded in joy.

Maria Rosa Guedez, a young secretary holding a PSUV flag, said Chávez had ended the political exclusion of people from the slums. "We're not invisible anymore. He talks to us. He's made us matter. What price can you put on that?"

On TV the rally looked a great success: a sea of red. On the ground, however, organisers fretted there were not more people and chastised some who did turn up for drifting away after Chávez passed. "You're supposed to follow the bus," a man shouted into a microphone. "Where is your revolutionary discipline?"



Election goals

