Tensions up in Venezuela after polls close
Source: AP-Excite
By FRANK BAJAK and ALEXANDRA OLSON
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Voters chose Sunday between the hand-picked successor who campaigned to carry on Hugo Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution and an emboldened second-time challenger who warned that the late president's regime has Venezuela on the road to ruin. Tensions rose soon after polls closed as both sides hinted at victory and suggested the other was plotting fraud.
Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the campaign for acting President Nicolas Maduro, said he couldn't reveal the results before electoral authorities did but strongly suggested Maduro had won by smiling and summoning supporters to the presidential palace, where Chavez's supporters gathered to celebrate the late president's past victories. And he warned that Maduro's camp would not allow the will of the people to be subverted.
Opposition challenger Henrique Capriles and his campaign aides immediately lashed out at Rodriguez's comments.
Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, a Capriles campaign coordinator, suggested the government was trying to steal the election.
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Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130415/DA5LLUB01.html
Polling station delegates start the counting of votes in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, April 14, 2013. Venezuelans went to the polls Sunday to choose the next president between Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, ruling party candidate Nicolas Maduro, and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
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