The new president of Venezuela following the closely-fought presidential election is Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro narrowly won Sunday's presidential election and the opposition disputed the result, calling for a vote recount. Maduro, hand-picked by Chávez and appointed Vice President six months earlier, and by the establishment as acting President in March, attributed his victory to "the Christ of Chávez."
The Venezuelan Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner late last night by a margin of just under 235,000 votes, or 1.6%. Maduro declared the victory "fair, legal, constitutional and popular".
The official count indicates he won 50.7% of votes to Mr Capriles' 49.1%. Maduro is a former bus driver who rose to become Mr Chavez's vice-president and heir apparent.
The move is bound to further heighten instability in an already deeply polarized nation where Nicolas Maduro was elected Sunday by a margin of 50.7 percent to 49.1 percent - a difference of just 235,000 votes out of 14.8 million cast.
"Until every vote is counted, Venezuela has an "illegitimate president and we denounce that to the world," opposition candidate Henrique Capriles tweeted Monday.
His demand for a recount was being considered Monday by the National Electoral Council, and one of the council's five members, independent Vicente Diaz, had also proposed a full recount.
