Venezuela's presidential frontrunner Maduro casts his ballot

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STORY: Venezuela's Acting President Nicolas Maduro cast his ballot on Sunday (April 14) in the country's hotly contested presidential elections that pits the late Hugo Chavez's self-declared socialist revolution against the opposition candidate promising change.

With a double-digit lead in most polls, Maduro is expected to sweep to power thanks largely to his former boss' public blessing before he died from cancer last month.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who has trumpeted his working-class roots at every rally, is promising to push forward Chavez's "21st century socialism" if he triumphs.

During campaigning, Chavez's protégé kept up his predecessors "anti-imperialist" rhetoric during campaigning with accusations of a U.S.-backed plot to destablise the country's election.