According to the latest polls, the government of Hugo Chavez, the outspoken anti-US president, may lose up to a third of the states – undermining any attempts to push forward a major constitutional reform again to allow Mr Chavez to seek re- election in 2012, a measure voters narrowly rejected last year.

"Beware, Chavez's destiny is even at play," he said at a rally this week in his increasingly desperate quest to turn the elections into a plebiscite on his rule.