Venezuelan opposition leader to contest election results at court

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said he would go to the Supreme Court Thursday to contest the results of last month's presidential race.

"We presented the challenge before the Supreme Court, as we have said, to exhaust all institutions, even though we know what is the reality,"Capriles told reporters Wednesday at a May Day rally of the opposition.

"We're going to exhaust the internal instance because we have no doubt that this case will end up in the international arena," he said.

Capriles lost the election to Nicolas Maduro by a narrow margin of 1.49 percent in the April 14 vote, but he hasn't conceded the race and requested an audit of 100 percent of the votes, which the electoral authority described as legally impossible.

The opposition leader called on his supporters to protest peacefully and never use violence.

Tensions are running high in the oil-rich South American nation after Maduro was declared the winner to succeed his mentor, late former President Hugo Chavez who died of cancer in March.