For some residents of Petare, a huge shantytown on the steep hills of Caracas, the latest in a string of Venezuela votes involves a simple financial choice.

"If I get aid from the opposition, I'll vote 'No.' If I don't, I'll vote 'Yes' on Sunday," shouted Amparo Perez, a resident of the biggest Caracas slum, over singing campaigners in a rubbish-strewn street.

The unemployed 37-year-old said she had for four years sought funding from the government of President Hugo Chavez for a project to help poor families.

"We haven't got anything," Perez said.

Along with a group of friends, Perez now seeks aid from the district's new opposition mayor. If he declines, they say they will protest by voting 'Yes' for Chavez.

The Venezuelan president is seeking a 'Yes' vote on his bid to scrap term limits on all elected offices — including his own which is due to end in 2013 — in a tightly-fought election on Sunday.

The anti-US champion has traditionally counted on the country's poor, including residents of Petare, to help him ride a bumpy decade in power in the polarized country.

But Chavez's socialist party lost control of Sucre, the municipality which includes the sprawling slum, amid accusations of bad management, in November local elections, as well as several key states.

It is now fighting hard for Petare ahead of Sunday's vote, which many see as a referendum on Chavez's decade of rule.

Masses of 'Yes' posters and painted slogans decorate the slum's crumbling buildings, strewn with spaghetti-like electric cables supporting precarious lightbulbs above the street.

On the ground, federal government-funded red-clad Chavez supporters began replacing rusting water pipes several weeks before the poll as, nearby, groups of workers for the opposition mayor swept the streets.

"We don't need to waste the mayor's time," said 54-year-old Francisco Reyes, a Chavez supporter overseeing the pipe replacement. "What's important for us is that the work is done."

A win for the 'Yes' vote on Sunday was necessary to maintain the federal programs as part of Chavez's long-term socialist revolution, Reyes said.

"We're going to lose all the benefits we've managed to get if the 'No' wins," he added.

Chavez supporters sold heavily-subsidized food at a roadside stall as swarms of others chanted in the street, blaring music out of sound systems and handing out CDs of pro-Chavez songs and T-shirts.

Nearby, at the metro station, the opposition mayor presented a program to clean up the streets, fighting to be heard above the din.

Like several local opposition leaders who took power in November, Mayor Carlos Ocariz has struggled to govern amid strong opposition from federal government supporters.

"My aim is to manage to change the municipality despite the state. We're creating small businesses, which is completely different from what they propose. In their case, the state does everything," Ocariz told AFP.

Rows of wheelbarrows laden with brooms and mops lay nearby, to be handed out to groups of locals who had agreed to set up small cleaning companies.

Many cite filthy streets, spiraling insecurity and inflation as reasons to seek a change from Chavez, and to vote 'No' on Sunday.

"The mayor achieves things. He's carrying out projects and has promised to fight crime," said 26-year-old Elizabeth Gonzalez, who recently gave up voting for the ever-present president and his socialist party.

Gonzalez struggled to be heard over a red wave of singing Chavez supporters, buoyed by the massive government campaign.

"Chavez is the only president who has looked after us," shouted one, Daisy Pescoso.

"He should stay in power until he no longer wants to — until two thousand and forever."

AFP