Thousands of opposition supporters crammed Caracas streets Monday, banging pots, burning trash bags and chanting "fraud" to protest the confirmation of late leader Hugo Chavez's political heir as president. The demonstration erupted as the National Electoral Council (CNE) certified the victory of acting President Nicolas Maduro against opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who refused to concede defeat and demanded a full recount. At one spot, police dispersed a group of protesters with tear gas.

By Brian Ellsworth CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President-elect Nicolas Maduro faces a difficult economic panorama of rising inflation and slowing growth, further complicated by his slim election victory that is being challenged by the opposition. Maduro won by the smallest margin of any Venezuelan election in the last 50 years after a whirlwind campaign triggered by the death of Hugo Chavez from cancer last month.

Venezuelans headed to the polls Sunday to elect Hugo Chavez's successor, with his political heir, Nicolas Maduro, hoping to continue his socialist revolution and rival Henrique Capriles vowing change in the divided nation. One month after Chavez died, supporters of acting President Maduro played military-style bugles to wake up people before dawn and later voters stood in lines, from the capital's hillside slums to its wealthier districts.

A deeply divided Venezuela picks a new leader Sunday, with the rich calling for an end to the "Hugo Chavez nightmare," and the poor warning against the bourgeoisie returning to power. Being poor is not a prerequisite for supporting the late Chavez's anointed heir, acting President Nicolas Maduro, and you do not have to be rich to support his rival Henrique Capriles. But their presidential campaigns have laid bare the intensely sharp political divisions that marked Chavez's 14-year rule until his death from cancer last month.