Socialist Nicolas
Maduro, hand-picked successor of the late leader Hugo Chavez, has won a narrow
victory in Venezuela's presidential poll.
Mr Maduro won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1%
for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
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Mr Capriles has demanded a recount, saying Mr
Maduro was now "even more loaded with illegitimacy".
He said there were more than 300,000 incidents
from Sunday's poll that would need to be examined.
Announcing the results late on Sunday night,
the National Electoral Council said they were "irreversible".
As the news emerged, celebrations erupted in
the capital, Caracas, where Mr Maduro's jubilant supporters set off fireworks
and blasted car horns. Opposition voters banged pots and pans in protest.
In a victory speech outside the presidential
palace, Mr Maduro, wearing the colours of the Venezuelan flag, told crowds that
the result was "just, legal and constitutional".
He said his election showed Hugo Chavez
"continues to be invincible, that he continues to win battles''.
Mr Maduro said he had spoken to Mr Capriles on
the phone, and that he would allow an audit of the election result.
He called for those who had not voted for him
to "work together" for the country.
But Mr Maduro's margin of victory was far
narrower than that achieved by Chavez at elections last October, when he beat
Mr Capriles by more than 10%.
Almost immediately one member of the National
Electoral Council who does not have government sympathies called on the
authorities to carry out a recount by hand, a call later echoed by Mr Capriles
himself.
At Mr Capriles' campaign headquarters the mood
was sombre, as his supporters watched the results on television. Some cried,
while others hung their heads in dismay,
Shortly afterwards, Mr Capriles emerged, angry
and defiant.
"It is the government that has been
defeated," he said. Then, addressing Mr Maduro directly, he said:
"The biggest loser today is you. The people don't love you."
The new president faces an extremely complex
task in office, says the BBC's Central America correspondent, Will Grant.
Venezuela has one of the highest rates of
inflation in the region and crime rates have soared in recent years,
particularly in Caracas. Food shortages and electricity blackouts are also
common.
But perhaps Mr Maduro's biggest challenge will
be trying to govern a country which is so deeply divided and polarised, and
where the opposition say they have an increasingly legitimate stake in the decision-making
process, our correspondent says.
The closeness of the race has also caused
reflection inside Mr Maduro's own United Socialist Party (PSUV).
The man considered to be Mr Maduro's main
rival, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, tweeted that the results
"oblige us to make a profound self-criticism".
Divisive legacy
Mr Maduro had been serving as acting president
since Mr Chavez died of cancer on 5 March.
He is due to be sworn in on 19 April and serve
until January 2019 to complete the six-year term that Mr Chavez would have
begun in January.
Mr Chavez was a divisive leader. To his
supporters he was the reforming president whose idiosyncratic brand of socialism
defeated the political elite and gave hope to the poorest Venezuelans.
He effectively used his country's vast oil
reserves to boost Venezuela's international clout, and his strident criticism
of the US won him many political allies in Latin America.
However, his political opponents accused him
of being an autocrat, intent on building a one-party state.
Source: BBC
