Pressure mounts for vote recount in Venezuela

Venezuela’s opposition piled pressure on electoral authorities Monday to recount the tight vote to replace late leader Hugo Chavez, calling for protests if acting President Nicolas Maduro is formally proclaimed the winner.

With the United States and the Organization of American States (OAS) backing his call for a vote review, opposition leader Henrique Capriles said Maduro would be an “illegitimate president” if the election result was confirmed.

After Chavez dominated elections for 14 years, his political heir barely defeated Capriles — by just 235,000 votes — in a nation deeply divided by the late president’s oil-funded socialist revolution.

Defying expectations of an easy victory for Maduro, Capriles won 49.1 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election, just shy of the 50.7 percent for his rival, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Maduro said he was open to a recount, but Information Minister Ernesto Villegas invited supporters to gather in a central Caracas square to celebrate with Maduro on Monday when he receives the official victory proclamation from the CNE.

Capriles urged Venezuelans to bang their kitchen pans later Monday if the proclamation goes forward — a popular Latin American form of protest known as a “cacerolazo” — to “let the world know our outrage, our anger.”

The 40-year-old state governor also called on Venezuelans to peacefully protest in front of CNE offices on Tuesday to demand a recount.

The Organization of American States backed calls for a recount, while the White House said an audit would be an “important, prudent and necessary step.”

“In our view, rushing to a decision in these circumstances would be inconsistent with the expectations of Venezuelans for a clear and democratic outcome,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza offered to send OAS election experts to help.

“In a context of deep division and political polarization, as shown by the electoral process, the leader of the OAS made a fervent call for a national dialogue to help calm the mood of the Venezuelan society,” the OAS said in a statement.

Around the world, Chavez’s closest allies — from Cuba to Ecuador and Russia — congratulated their friend’s handpicked political heir, one month after the charismatic leader lost his battle to cancer aged 58.

Cuban leader Raul Castro said his ally’s victory “shows the strength of the ideas and work of Comandante Hugo Chavez.”

Riding a wave of grief over his mentor’s death, Maduro had led opinion polls by double digits ahead of Sunday’s vote, but Capriles ran an energetic campaign that tapped into deep discontent over rampant crime and economic weakness.

Both candidates pledged during the campaign to recognize the result.

But Capriles — who accepted defeat when Chavez beat him by 11 points in October polls — said he had a list of some 3,200 “incidents” that took place during the vote.

Maduro — a 50-year-old former bus driver who rose to foreign minister and vice president under Chavez — called his victory “fair, legal, constitutional.”

Before dying, Chavez had urged Venezuelans to vote for Maduro if he was unable to return to power. During the campaign, people chanted “Chavez, I swear, my vote is for Maduro,” but enthusiasm appeared to have waned at the 11th hour.

At a newspaper stand in the capital’s business district of Chacao, known as a Capriles stronghold, supporters of the 40-year-old state governor said they wanted a recount.

“We want a review of the vote so that we can move forward, so that we are clear whether we lost,” said 56-year-old public accountant Oswaldo Gomez.

Under the constitution, a recall referendum can be called after the third year of a presidency if 20 percent of voters’ signatures are gathered.

Across town, in Caracas’ historic center, Maduro supporters said the opposition must accept defeat.

“The numbers don’t lie. The little bourgeois should recognize the result given by the CNE,” said Nahem Machado, a 41-year-old construction worker.

Ignacio Avalos, a sociology professor at Central University of Venezuela, said the nation was in a “very delicate situation.”

“Such a thin difference in a country that is so extremely polarized is hard to deal with politically,” Avalos said.

“The big challenge, however this finishes, is how to become one country again, with its conflicts and contradictions.”

The burly, mustachioed leader vowed to continue the oil-funded policies that cut poverty by almost half to 29 percent through popular health, education and food programs.

But Chavez’s self-declared “son” faces a litany of problems: South America’s highest murder rate, with 16,000 people killed last year, chronic food shortages, high inflation and recurring power outages