Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles cast his ballot Sunday at the private school St. Thomas of Villanova in eastern Caracas, encouraging his supporters to come out and vote for him.

"Now is the time to flood to the polling stations. All who have not voted, let's get out and vote," said the opposition leader in a brief press conference with media.

There are "some complaints and offenses" during the electoral process, he said, asking Venezuelans to act as "reporters" of these irregularities and show great strength and bravery to the world.

When asked by reporters about the transparency of the National Electoral Council (CNE) during the electoral process, Capriles said he has confidence that the elections will reflect people's will.

"Even though there are complaints in the process, no one will know who you vote for, by that I mean that the votes impose the will of the people," he said.

Capriles ended his speech by telling Venezuelans that "today is the day to be protagonists, to express ourselves, to make our voices feel through our votes."

More than 18.9 million registered voters are eligible to participate in the election to choose between former President Hugo Chavez's revolutionary path led by acting President Nicolas Maduro, 50 and the opposition's liberal road led by Henrique Capriles.

Most of the polls showed that Maduro leads with a margin of 20 percentage points in the race against Capriles.

Hugo Chavez died of cancer on March 5.

The polling stations opened at 6 a.m. local time (1030 GMT) and will close at 6 p.m. (2230 GMT). The final results are expected later Sunday night. Endi

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