According to opinion polls, acting President Nicolas Maduro is well ahead of the opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles.
In the lead-up to the election, the image of Hugo Chavez has been seen everywhere.
And as Claudianna Blanco reports, there's been a move to portray him as a saint, embellished with religious iconography.
Grief and sorrow overtook the city of Caracas during the 10 days of mourning that followed the announcement of President Chavez's death.
The emotion was overwhelming.
The heartache was palpable.
"We have a leader! A second Bolivar! I came from Cariaco, sick as I am, to meet my dead Commander! But he lives here in my heart! I love him! I adore him!"
"We love him, and we will never, ever forget him! Because another president like him will never be born again. We will continue to love him, I swear! And we vow our loyalty to our commander, and we will continue to fight!"
The city streets came to a standstill, as buses bringing people from every corner of the country blocked the main arteries of the Venezuelan capital.
Hundreds of thousands of Chavez supporters joined the various funerary ceremonies, lining up for hours in the scorching heat, just to have a chance to bid their final farewell to their beloved leader.
"Chavez Lives, the fight continues!"
On the streets of Caracas, mementos of all kinds are sold to honour the charismatic leader.
T-shirts, hats, photographs, music CDs, watches, jewellery, tattoos, lollies, action figures, inflatable dolls, paintings and even rosaries featuring a photo of Chavez on one side, and the image of Jesus Christ on the other.
There are flyers that refer to the late president as Chavez Christ.
The city also boasts graffiti praising Hugo Chavez and people have even built shrines in his name.
"Chavez didn't die, he multiplied!"(Crowd Chants) "Viva Chavez!!!"
Local Chavez supporter and sociologist Maryclen Stelling believes Hugo Chavez's emotional and charismatic bond with his supporters began from the moment he appeared on the public scene in 1992.
But she says the religious nature of their relationship was cemented when the late President said goodbye to the country last December, to return to Cuba to undergo his fourth cancer surgery.
"There is a kind of irrationality at play here, that is difficult to understand if you're not Venezuelan, or do not live here for a while. The slogan used by Chavez supporters, 'we are all Chavez' is an absolute truth. And the way that Chavez closed his chapter on Earth, on December 8th, was really important, as he said goodbye in case he didn't return. He said, 'I'm not Chavez, you are. We are all Chavez', and by doing so he empowered his people to defend his political project. He also named his successor, Nicolas Maduro, and proposed him as presidential candidate. In a way, he gave the project he had led a life of its own, but also added a dash of religiousness and irrationality to it."
Mr Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro, has constructed his election campaign around what some observers have described as a cult.
He calls himself "the son of Chavez" or the "Apostle of Chavez" and refers to him as "The Supreme Commander".
He even said during a televised speech that Mr Chavez may have swayed what he called Jesus's decision to elect a Latin-American Pope.
"We know our Commander ascended to heavenly heights. And he is face to face with Jesus. Something must have influenced the election of a South American Pope. A new hand arrived. And Christ said, well it's time for South America."
During another televised speech, Mr Maduro claimed that the late President had appeared to him in the form of a little bird.
"I whistled at it (Maduro whistles). The little bird looked strangely at me; it whistled, flew around me, and left. And I felt His spirit. I felt he was blessing us."
Venezuelan theologist Enrique Ali Gonzalez believes that the current use of religious iconography and symbolism in the political campaign could be considered profane.
"From a democratic perspective, anyone is entitled to express his or her own thoughts, and that can be respected. But if we analyse it from a Christian point of view, it's blasphemy. A red rosary featuring the face of Chavez could be considered a cultural object, and artisans are entitled to make them, but it could never be considered a cult object within the realms of Catholicism. Same goes for anything that likens Chavez to Christ. Evidently that has absolutely no relation with Christianity, because that is not even heresy; it is blasphemy, an insult to faith."
"With Chavez and Maduro, the people are safe!"
His supporters believe Nicolas Maduro's election campaign is blessed by Hugo Chavez's saintly omnipresence.
During televised speeches, Mr Chavez is in photos placed behind Mr Maduro.
Both men appear together on most campaign posters.
And among the many slogans, there are two chants that stand out: "With Chavez and Maduro the people are safe", and "Chavez, I swear, I will vote for Maduro".
(Music): "Chavez, I swear, I will vote for Maduro".
The number of times that Nicolas Maduro mentions the name Hugo Chavez is so extraordinary, that there is even a website devoted to the counting of them.
It says in 16 days, Mr Maduro mentioned the name Chavez in public 4,543 times.
Venezuelan political expert Humberto Njaim believes Mr Maduro's campaign strategy is to make maximum use of the dead President's popularity.
"They are trying to establish a 'sacralisation', and then a connection with the successors, who don't have the same personal, or leadership qualities, or the same charisma. The aim is to introduce a succession of this charisma or these qualities into the people who now hold power and will be participating in the upcoming election."
As the creation of the Chavez myth takes over the country, so do different theories about his death.
For some, Hugo Chavez was cursed after opening the grave of independence hero Simon Bolivar in 2010, 180 years after his death.
Mr Chavez ordered the exhumation of Simon Bolivar's remains supposedly to study the real cause of his death, because of persistent reports that he had been poisoned.
However, rumours were rife in Venezuela that Mr Chavez's real motive was to use the remains in a voodoo-like ritual, in the hope of empowering himself with the spirit of the Venezuelan independence hero.
According to the believers of this theory, Simon Bolivar himself had said that if anyone desecrated his grave they would perish - and several government ministers involved in the supposed ritual have already died.
Another theory about Mr Chavez's death involves a speech in which he cursed "the State of Israel from the bottom of his guts", which is ironically where the late President's cancer originated.
According to this Chavez supporter and fervent Christian, whoever curses the Jewish people, will in turn be damned.
"I ask myself, God, why? I know that the sin that he committed was to curse the Israeli State. I saw him as he said it, and I thought, God, no! Chavez, why did you say that? Because there is a saying, a gospel that says, 'I will bless those who bless you, and damn those who condemn you'".
Chavez follower and journalist Carmen Cecilia Lara supports a third theory: that the US Central Intelligence Agency infected Mr Chavez with cancer.
"Regardless of the fact that his cancer was induced, injected, as we believe, our President died because he sacrificed himself".
In this political environment where passion, religion and magic feature so prominently in campaigning, the opposition too uses Christian symbolism in a bid to win votes.
Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles' campaign headquarters boasts an exhibition of hundreds of Catholic statues of virgins and saints.
The walls are covered in prayer cards given to the presidential hopeful by his supporters.
Opposition politician, Armando Briquet, has acted as Mr Capriles' campaign manager.
"Capriles is a Marian. And as a devotee of the Virgin, he calls upon her and practices this cult. That is his religion. He has his values, which he expresses freely, but he doesn't believe he is God's envoy, which is different to what the government does. Clearly, what's going on from a political point of view is that when you don't have any tangible achievements, you have to compensate by using the intangible. When you don't have a good government administration, you have to revert to using airy, ethereal and religious imagery. So, the government mythicises their leader and his work because they don't have much to show."
Sociologist and cult expert Michaelle Ascencio describes the role of religion in Venezuelan politics.
"Venezuelans are very religious. Religiousness has grown in recent years. The majority of the religious acts that we see today have a close relation to politics. We can almost say that we have a war of saints. Virgins belong to the opposition, and the government has Christ the Redeemer. They repeat, 'God is my Commander', 'I am with Christ', and so on…"
Michaelle Ascencio believes that religiousness has increased due to the difficult life conditions in Venezuela.
"If institutions are not working, religion then often takes their place. So, people start asking God and the saints to solve the problems that should be solved by Government bodies. Then of course there is a very strong connection between religion and politics. And I consider that to be very dangerous to democracy."
