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, according to BBC. 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.
