BY STEVEN DUDLEY, PHIL GUNSON AND NANCY SAN MARTIN

CARACAS - Venezuelan voters turned out in stunningly massive numbers Sunday to cast their ballots in an unprecedented recall referendum on President Hugo Chávez, some waiting in line outside polling stations for more than nine hours.

The long lines across the country, which forced several polling stations to keep their doors open well past midnight, were a sign that voters are determined to end a 3-year-old crisis that has bitterly polarized Venezuela's population, crippled its economy and unleashed several outbreaks of deadly violence.

Both sides claimed to be ahead. Government officials told foreign diplomats in Caracas that Chávez was ahead by 16 percentage points, but two opposition exit polls showed the votes to recall Chávez ahead by at least 10 points, opposition sources told The Herald.

Information Minister Jesse Chacón said he was satisfied with the results of the government's own exit polls. ``We have three foreign companies doing exit polls and, let me tell you, we feel very comfortable.''

The National Electoral Council has banned the release of any exit-poll results before it announces its official figures, which were expected today.

Both sides have raised the specter of fraud, and Chávez government officials have warned that his defeat could upset Venezuela's oil-export industry, the largest in the Western Hemisphere and supplier of about 13 percent of U.S. oil imports.

World oil prices have been inching up in recent weeks partly on speculation on what would happen if the 50-year-old Chávez is defeated in the vote.

CLOSE TIES TO CUBA

First elected by a landslide in 1998, Chávez has launched a leftist-populist ''revolution'' on behalf of Venezuela's poor majority, angering the country's middle and upper classes and business and labor sectors and slowing the economy. His relations with the Bush administration have been worse than tense, and he has maintained a close alliance with communist Cuba, which has sent thousands of doctors, teachers, military advisors and intelligence officers to Venezuela.

Both pro- and anti-Chávez groups have shown violent sides. But observers said Sunday they were optimistic that democracy would prevail.

To recall Chávez, his opponents must get a majority of the votes cast and at least one more vote than the total the president received in his election in 2000, nearly 3.8 million votes. The nation of 25 million people has 14 million registered voters.

If Chávez loses, Vice President José Vicente Rangel would take power until a new election is held within 30 days. Chávez has said he would run in that election, but the constitution is not clear on whether a recalled president can run again.

In poorer neighborhoods viewed as Chávez strongholds, voters were roused out of bed before dawn Sunday by the sounds of fireworks and bugles, the signal that it was time to head to the polling stations to vote against the referendum.

But later, the lines outside polling stations were so long that the Electoral Council ordered the polls, which had been scheduled to close by 4 p.m., to keep their doors open until midnight and allow anyone in line at that time to vote. Voting continued into the early-morning hours.

Sunday night, even as ballots were still being cast, hundreds of ''Chavistas,'' as Chávez supporters are called, converged on the presidential palace to celebrate, blowing whistles and chanting that Chávez had won, The Associated Press reported.

Leaflets scattered in front of the palace declared victory and called on ''everyone to go to the streets to celebrate and defend the victory,'' according to the AP.

Many voters, meanwhile, were exasperated by the long waits and accused electoral workers of deliberately delaying the process. Occasionally they broke into chants of ``We want to vote!''

But most remained relatively calm as they inched toward the voting booths. Many said they were more concerned about a possible violent reaction once the results were tallied.

''I'll wait as long as I have to,'' said Ana Karina Gómez, 29, as she waited in a half-mile line in Petare, a neighborhood in eastern Caracas considered to be pro-Chávez, ``I'm not afraid to vote. I'm afraid of what might happen after the results come out.''

Many voters said they were impressed with the efficiency of the new electronic voting and fingerprint-checking machines, never before used for elections. But complaints about faulty fingerprinting machines increased as the day wore on. Even Chávez had to turn to a second machine when his thumbprint initially failed to register.

In the working-class district of El Valle in central Caracas, the voting line stretched to more than 1,300 people by 8:30 a.m. Although considered to be a Chávez stronghold, many waiting to cast their votes said they would vote ''yes'' to recall the president.

''In this line, we're all si, si, si until death,'' said one voter as those around him cheered. The man said he could not give his name because he was an employee of the Electoral Council on forced leave for having signed the petition seeking a referendum.

One person was killed and 10 were wounded in an unexplained drive-by shooting at a polling station on the Caracas outskirts Sunday afternoon, but overall, the voters' mood appeared calm.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in Caracas as an independent observer, said that it was the largest turnout he had ever seen in his many years of observing elections around the world.

WORKERS DON'T SHOW

In El Llanito, in eastern Caracas, serious delays were reported because none of the technicians for the computerized fingerprint-checking machines showed up.

Francisco Carrasquero, president of the Electoral Council, blamed ''irresponsible operators'' for not showing up at the polling centers. ''It seems as if some of them were paid to not to go to work,'' he said.

But Chávez, who cast his ballot shortly before noon, called it a ''day of celebration, peace and democracy,'' and reiterated his intention to accept the results.

''Let us wait calmly . . . with lots of enthusiasm to accept the results,'' Chávez said, adding that those who are not satisfied with the results should not fret.

''The game will continue,'' he said.

Herald staff writer Andres Oppenheimer contributed to this report.