Venezuela votes Sunday in municipal elections seen as a referendum on the performance of President Nicolas Maduro since being elected by a narrow majority in April.

Venezuela votes Sunday in municipal elections seen as a referendum on the performance of President Nicolas Maduro since being elected by a narrow majority in April.

The successor of Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer in March, has presented himself in recent months as a man of action in the face of a teetering economy in a country with the world's largest oil reserves.

On November 20, the National Assembly gave Maduro powers to rule by decree, to fight corruption and to respond to what he names an "economic war" unleashed by the opposition with US backing.

Maduro immediately rolled out a series of measures to force cuts in prices, notably household appliances and automobiles, and threaten speculators with prison.

With several days to go before the election, private polls indicate that Maduro's display of willfulness and the populist tenor of the measures have been well received by the middle class, which appears less inclined than expected to punish his party at the ballot box.