Socialist candidate Nicolas Maduro has won a narrow victory in Venezuela’s presidential poll. Maduro, who was chosen by the late Hugo Chavez as his successor, won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
The electoral commission said the results were “irreversible”.
Capriles said he refused to accept the result without a recount, and said he believed that Maduro had lost the election.
He said there were more than 300,000 incidents from Sunday’s poll that would need to be examined.
“This result does not reflect the reality of the country. We will do everything so that the truth is known,” Capriles said.
Earlier, Maduro had addressed his supporters, saying he had spoken to 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.
Maduro, wearing the colours of the Venezuelan flag, told a rally of supporters in front of the presidential palace that he had won a “just, legal and constitutional” victory.
His supporters set off fireworks in the capital, Caracas, after the result was announced, while opposition voters banged pots and pans, the Reuters news agency reports. But Maduro’s margin of victory was far smaller than that gained by the late President Chavez over Capriles at elections last October. Almost 80% of eligible voters took part in the poll.
