Venezuela Elections 2013: Opposition Violently Protests Nicolás Maduro's Election; 4 Dead

Reuters reports that four people have died in violent protests in Venezuela following the election of Nicolás Maduro, the candidate picked by late president Hugo Chavez to be his successor. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has demanded a recount amid allegations of tampering, saying that until the recount was performed, Maduro would be an "illegitimate president." Two people have died in Miranda state, which includes part of Caracas. Another died in Tachira, a state on the Colombian border, and a fourth in western Zulia state.

Capriles tweeted on Monday that if Maduro were to be "cowardly" declared the official winner by the National Electoral Council (CNE) -- the Council is seen by the opposition to be in league with the ruling party -- his supporters should take to the streets in a "cacerolazo," a banging of pots and pans in the streets, to drown out the announcement. The New York Times wrote on Monday that as the official certification was read by the Council, hundreds of demonstrators, mostly young people, burned trash and blocked a highway in Altamira, a middle-class neighborhood in Caracas, as National Guard soldiers fired tear gas and anti-riot projectiles. Maduro said that supporters of the opposition had burned down offices of the United Socialist Party, of which he was candidate, and accused them of hoping for a coup.

Tibisay Lucena, the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Venezuela, said that the recount requested by Capriles would not be awarded and rebuked him for his use of what she called "threats and intimidation" in appealing the Council's decision. On Sunday night, she called the decision "irreversible" and said that "a recount would mean going back to the manual counting of votes, which is very vulnerable," praising Venezuela's automated voting system, which keeps two records of every vote cast -- one in the voting machine and another in the form of a printed receipt, according to BBC News. Lucena also criticized the White House and the Organization of American States for voicing their support for a recount, calling it interference with Venezuelan affairs.

Capriles' team says it has evidence of about 3,200 election irregularities which range from allegations that voters used fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at polling centers. And opposition sources have told Reuters that according to their count, Capriles won by more than 300,000 votes.

According to newspaper El Universal, the final results showed that 50.72 percent of the voting public went for Maduro, while 48.99 percent chose Capriles, who was defeated by the late Chavez in the last election by a much wider margin. The campaign was brief -- ten days -- and notably venomous even for a country which lived the divisive politics of Chavez's presidency. The international media has widely reported it as a species of loss for Maduro despite his apparent retention of power, as his 14-percentage-point lead in the polls evaporated in less than a two-week campaign.