Nicolas Maduro elected Venezuela President

SAO PAULO: Venezuelan electoral officials say voters have narrowly elected Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor as president in a close battle.

Winner Nicolas Maduro campaigned on a promise to carry on Mr. Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution, and defeated a two-time challenger who claimed the late president's regime has put Venezuela on the road to ruin.

Officials say Mr. Maduro, former acting president, defeated Henrique Capriles by just 300,000 votes. The margin was 50.8% to 49.1%.

Speaking from Caracas, Venezuelan journalist Virginia Lopez told Sky News: "I think this has caught the whole country by a surprise.

"We got used to Chavez winning by handsome margins so to have an election won on a matter of 300,000 votes is quite incredible."

Addressing a crowd from the presidential palace, Mr. Maduro called his victory further proof that Mr. Chavez "continues to be invincible, that he continues to win battles".

He said that Mr. Capriles had called him before the results were announced to suggest a "pact" and that Mr. Maduro refused.

There was no immediate word from Capriles.

Turnout was 78%, down from just over 80% in the October election that Mr. Chavez won by a nearly 11-point margin.

National Electoral Council president Tibisay Lucena told a news conference: "These are the irreversible results that the people have decided."

Mr. Maduro, a longtime foreign minister to Mr. Chavez, rode a wave of sympathy for the charismatic leader to victory, pinning his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of government largesse and the powerful state apparatus that Mr. Chavez skillfully consolidated.

Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Mr. Chavez, but many also believe his government not only squandered, but plundered, much of the $1trn in oil revenues during his tenure.

Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime - one of the world's highest murder and kidnapping rates - that the opposition said worsened after Mr. Chavez died on March 5 after battling cancer.