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Political uncertainty was reignited in Venezuela last week after electoral authorities stunned the country by announcing Hugo Chávez’s handpicked successor as the winner of the election, but with a razor-thin margin of victory. The underperformance of Nicolás Maduro – combined with daily protests, allegations of fraud, international pressure and the numerous economic and social problems within the country – have descended Venezuela into significant tension and uncertainty.

Citing irregularities in the election process, opposition leader Henrique Capriles refused to recognize the election’s validity, demanding a full manual recount of the votes. Numerous international actors, including the United States, Spain and the Organization of American States sided with the opposition, declaring the recount an important and necessary step to instill confidence in the results. Denied the recount at first, opposition supporters around the country banged pots and pans in a traditional sign of protest. A large march to the Election Council was canceled, however, after Maduro ominously vowed to come down with a “firm hand” on opposition supporters.

After days of protests – and just hours before Nicolás Maduro’s swearing-in – the government announced on Friday that it would allow a full “audit” of the vote. Venezuela uses electronic voting machines to record votes that provide a printed receipt which is placed into a sealed ballot box. As is protocol, electoral authorities initially audited 54 percent of the electronic votes. Now, they have conceded to audit the remaining 46 percent. Though the expanded audit is not a full manual recount as originally requested, Capriles accepted the election authority’s ruling. The audit will involve counting the paper ballots in 12,000 voting machines at random stations to ensure they are consistent with the machine-tallied results.

Capriles has cited significant evidence for why a full recount must be undertaken. The opposition has asserted that among the irregularities, there were 535 malfunctioning voting machines, election monitors were forcibly removed from 286 centers and 564 centers evidenced government-assisted voting. Even more peculiar was that Maduro received more votes than Chávez in 1,176 polling stations, with some precincts seeing Maduro surpass the beloved leader by nearly 1,000 percent. In addition, more than 100,000 Venezuelans who turned 18 in the past six months were not given an opportunity to register to vote, while more than 500,000 Venezuelans living in exile have been denied voter registration. Given that Capriles only lost by approximately 200,000 votes, verification of fraud in any of these instances could reveal information that may reverse the final results or necessitate a partial repeat of the election.

The audit is expected to begin sometime this week, but will likely take approximately one month to complete. However, despite the Election Council’s decision to review the results, Maduro was formally sworn in on Friday. Analysts compared the event to a rally held in January on the day Chávez was to be sworn in, but unable to attend. Despite their leader’s absence, tens of thousands of people showed up to take the oath of office on his behalf. Maduro did not enjoy such treatment, however. While thousands of people showed up on Friday to welcome their new president, the crowd was a far cry from the one in January – another clear example that he lacks the charisma and popularity of “el Comandante.”

On Sunday, Maduro went even further, announcing his new cabinet. He showed little variation from Chávez, recycling former ministers into new positions and bringing current and former military officers to top administrative jobs. The greatest surprise was the change in the leadership of the Finance Ministry. Jorge Giordani, a declared Marxist and Chávez long-time ally who is often credited as the architect of the socialist economic policies and controls, will retain his post as planning minister but will no longer oversee the Finance Ministry.

Though tensions simmered after the Election Committee vowed to audit the results, both camps have yet to agree on its true meaning. While Maduro builds his government and begins to instill orders, a near majority of the country hopefully awaits the recount, desperately hoping for a new day in Venezuela.