Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is set for triumph over attempts by wealthy interests in his country to remove him from office.
With 94 per cent of vots in the recall referendum counted, 58 per cent voted against sacking Mr Chavez, said National Electoral Council president Mr Francisco Carrasquero.
Mr Chavez appeared on the balcony of his Miraflores presidential palace in downtown Caracas and led hundreds of supporters in singing the national anthem before
dawn.
"The Venezuelan people have spoken and the people's voice is the voice of God!" roared the leader whose revolution of the poor has diverted wealth from oil sales to housing, food and medical care.
But opposition leaders are claiming victory, saying the official results are a fraud engineered through the use of electronic voting machines.
"We firmly and categorically reject the result. ... We're going to collect the evidence to prove to Venezuela and the world the gigantic fraud which has been committed against the will of the people," said opposition leader Mr Henry Ramos Allup.
EU representatives are among a team of international observers, including former US president Mr Jimmy Carter, who have praised the conduct of yesterday's voting though they have yet give a formal opinion.
The vote is the latest chapter in more than two years of often violent confrontation between Mr Chavez's supporters and those who claim the popular, socialist leader is a dangerous tyrant bent on reshaping his oil-rich nation into a Cuba-style communist state.
The vote had stoked fears of renewed violence, especially if the results is close. To date there has been no opposition call for protests.
Oil markets will be watching the outcome with concern. Venezuela is the fifth largest producer of oil in the world and supplies could affected if there is instability in teh country.
The clear signs that Mr Chavez has won the vote sent oil prices to near record highs of over $46 a barrel as the incumbent is regarded as having a better chance of containing the dissent that has dogged the past two years of his presidency.
A clear victory is likely to mean the loose alliance of interests that makes up Mr Chavez's opposition will back down from further confrontation and plan for congressional elections next year and a presidential election in 2006.
Agencies