CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied supporters before Sunday's national assembly elections as opposition campaigners vowed to halve the government's parliamentary majority and limit its lawmaking powers.
Chavez, 56, is widely tipped to win the legislative elections but the opposition is banking on small victories that will reduce a majority it handed to Chavez when it boycotted the 2005 election.
If, as widely predicted, Chavez wins fewer than 110 seats then the opposition will have the chance to mount an obstructionist campaign against his revolutionary lawmaking in the legislature if not entirely succeed in derailing his Bolivarian revolution, analysts said.
Opposition campaigners hope to capitalize on electricity and water shortages, high crime rates and government inefficiencies and build on promises of forcing change.
Opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado urged voters to go to the polls without fear to make Venezuela "a safer country" -- a reference to opposition allegations of government intimidation of dissidents.
UPI
