Nicolas Maduro elected Venezuela president

Venezuela's acting President Nicolas Maduro was elected Hugo Chavez's successor Sunday with 50.66 percent of the vote, while opposition rival Henrique Capriles earned 49.06 percent, election officials said.

In a bitterly fought election, Venezuela on Sunday voted for Hugo Chavez once again as it elected his political heir, Nicolas Maduro, as the new president. In the polls that opened with the sounds of firecrackers and trumpets at 6 am and closed more than 12 hours later, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela leader defeated Henrique Capriles Radonski, the joint candidate of several opposition parties by a margin of less than 2% votes. Maduro defeated the opposition candidate by only about 300,000 votes. While Maduro got 50.66% of votes, Capriles took 49.07% of the ballots in a tighter-than-expected vote. Announcing the result, the president of the national election commission, Tibisay Lucena, said the result is "irreversible"