Today Venezuelans vote to choose their next president. The choices couldn't be more distinct. Hugo Chavez: The socialist leader of the country for the last 14 years and centrist Henrique Capriles a leader of the opposition. Polls close at 4 and we should start seeing results by 6.
2:00 PM - High voter turnout is expected, with predictions that 75% of the populace will vote today. Streets throughout the country are filled with lines of voters. Several overseas voting booths have already closed including the London Embassy which has reporter 1600 votes out of 2100 registrations.
12:36 PM PT: 2:30 PM - Three People have already been murdered at the polls. The high violence rate in Venezuela has been one of the major concerns during this election.
1:34 PM PT: 3:30 PM - Polls have already started to close in parts Venezuela. Local time is 4:00 PM and closings will continue until 5:30 PM. Results should emerge sporadically going into the evening.
3:04 PM PT: 5:00 PM - The Venezuelan head of elections just gave a press conference a couple of seconds ago confirming that turnout has been hovering around 75% and that there have been very few irregularities so far.
4:54 PM PT: 6:50 PM All polls have closed, everyone has voted, and the President of the National Committee on Elections has announced a end to the elections.
5:00 PM PT: 7:00 PM Armando Briquet, on of the heads of elections stated that they estimate this to be the highest level of participation in a Venezuelan election in history.