(14 Apr 2013)
1. Wide of people queuing outside polling station
2. Wide of soldier guarding polling station
3. Mid people entering polling station
4. Mid voters standing by desk
5. Close up hands typing
6. Close up of voters
7. Wide of Carmen Serra voting
8. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) vox pop, Carmen Serra, Venezuelan voter:
"I didn't have any problems voting, everybody was voting quickly. And I got out quickly too."
9. Wide soldiers lining up outside voting centre
10. Mid of soldiers
11. Mid of soldier looking for name on electoral list outside polling station
12. Close up of soldier
13. Mid of voters looking for their names on electoral lists posted outside polling station
14. Close up voters
STORYLINE
Polls opened in the capital Caracas early on Sunday as Venezuelans queued up to elect a new president.
Voters have to decide between Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, Acting President Nicolas Maduro, or opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
50-year-old Maduro is pinning his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of a socialist government's largesse and the heft of a state apparatus that Chavez skilfully consolidated.
Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Chavez in October's presidential election by a nearly 11-point margin, the best showing ever by a challenger to the long-time president.
His main campaign weapon has been to simply point out "the incompetence of the state," as he put it to reporters in a news conference on Saturday night.
Maduro is still favoured to win, but his early big lead in opinion polls halved over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of Chavez's management of the world's largest oil reserves.
Many Venezuelans believe his confederates not only squandered but plundered much of the one trillion US dollars in oil revenues during his time in office.
People are fed up with chronic power cuts, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages and rampant crime that has given Venezuela among the world's highest murder and kidnapping rates.
Whoever wins on Sunday will face no end of hard choices.
Many Venezuelan factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials.
Business leaders say some companies are on verging on bankruptcy because they are unable to extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.
Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses.
Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.
Meanwhile, consumers grumble that shops are short of milk, butter, flour and other food staples.
The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.
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