National Assembly of Venezuela: Difference between revisions

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* {{Color box|#810000|border=silver}} [[Popular Revolutionary Alternative]]{{Update inline|date=November 2023|?=yes|reason=PCV was intervened too.}} (1)

{{Main|Congress of the Republic of Venezuela}}

On 29 March 2017, the [[Supreme Tribunal of Justice (Venezuela)|Supreme Court]] (TSJ) stripped the Assembly of its powers, ruling that all powers would be transferred to the Supreme Court. The previous year the court found the assembly in contempt for swearing in legislators whose elections had been deemed invalid by the court.<ref name=CNN_diss/> The 2017 court judgement declared that the "situation of contempt" meant that the assembly could not exercise its powers.<ref name="NY_diss1">{{cite news|last1=Casey|first1=Nicolas|last2=Torres|first2=Patrica|title=Venezuela Moves a Step Closer to One-Man Rule|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/venezuelas-supreme-court-takes-power-from-legislature.html?_r=0|access-date=30 March 2017|work=New York Times|date=30 March 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502091859/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/venezuelas-supreme-court-takes-power-from-legislature.html?_r=0|archive-date=2 May 2017}}</ref> The action transferred powers from the Assembly, which had an opposition majority since January 2016,<ref name="NY_diss1"/> to the Supreme Court, which has a majority of government loyalists.<ref name=CNN_diss/> The move was denounced by the opposition with Assembly President [[Julio Borges]] describing the action as a coup d'état by President [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref name=CNN_diss>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/americas/venezuela-dissolves-national-assembly/|title=Venezuela's high court dissolves National Assembly|firstfirst1=Rafael |last1=Romo, Senior Latin American Affairs|last=Editor|website=cnn.com|access-date=9 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228170319/http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/americas/venezuela-dissolves-national-assembly/|archive-date=28 December 2017}}</ref> However, after public protests and condemnation by international bodies, the court's decision was reversed a few days later on 1 April.<ref name=hupo_timeline>{{cite news|last1=Robins-Early|first1=Nick|title=A Timeline of Venezuela's Months of Protests And Political Crisis|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/venezuela-crisis-timeline_us_5987330ae4b0cb15b1bf1b99|access-date=20 August 2017|work=Huffington Post|date=7 August 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823124202/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/venezuela-crisis-timeline_us_5987330ae4b0cb15b1bf1b99|archive-date=23 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/world/venezuela-crisis-socialist-government-people-poorer/|title=Venezuela crisis: How a socialist government has managed to make its people poorer|last=Sandhu|first=Serina|date=15 August 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820202513/https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/world/venezuela-crisis-socialist-government-people-poorer/|archive-date=20 August 2017}}</ref>

All deputies serve five-year terms and must appoint a replacement ''(suplente)'' to stand in for them during periods of incapacity or absence.<ref name=":0" /> Under the 1999 constitution deputies could be reelected on up to two terms (Art. 192); under the [[2009 Venezuelan constitutional referendum]] these term limits were removed.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Debrief: New Report on Venezuela&#039;'s Re-Election Referendum|url=https://nacla.org/news/debrief-new-report-venezuelas-re-election-referendum|access-date=2021-03-12|website=NACLA|language=en}}</ref> Deputies must be Venezuelan citizens by birth, or naturalized Venezuelans with a period of residency in excess of 15 years; older than 21 on the day of the election; and have lived in the state for which they seek election during the previous four years (Art. 188).<ref name=":0" />

Since 2010 the Assembly's 15 Permanent Committees, created by the 2010 Assembly Rules, are mannedcomposed withby aMPs minimum(ranging numberfrom the minimum of 7 andto athe maximum of 25 MPs) tackling legislation of various issues.<ref name=":0" /> The Committees' offices are housed in the José María Vargas Building in Caracas, few hundred yards from the Federal Legislative Palace, the former building is also where the offices of the Assembly leadership are located.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Asamblea Nacional|url=https://www.asambleanacionalvenezuela.org/asamblea/historia|access-date=2021-03-12|website=Asamblea Nacional|language=Spanish}}</ref>

At the [[2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election|2015 parliamentary election]], the MUD won 109 of the 164 general seats and all three indigenous seats, which gave them a [[supermajority]] in the National Assembly; while the government's own coalition, the [[Great Patriotic Pole]] (GPP), won the remaining 55 seats. [[Voter turnout]] exceeded 70 percent.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-06/venezuelans-to-vote-in-polls-seen-handing-congress-to-opposition|title = Venezuela Opposition Won Majority of National Assembly Seats|date = 7 December 2015|work = Bloomberg|access-date = 7 December 2015|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151206224919/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-06/venezuelans-to-vote-in-polls-seen-handing-congress-to-opposition|archive-date = 6 December 2015|df = dmy-all}}</ref>

The result, however, was marred by the January 2016 suspension from the NANational Assembly by the [[Supreme Tribunal of Justice (Venezuela)|Supreme Tribunal of Justice]] of 4 elected members of Parliament (MPs) from Amazonas state due to alleged voter fraud and election irregularities. 3 of the 4 were opposition deputies and one was from the government's coalition (GPP). {{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

In 2020, Maduro’s [[United Socialist Party of Venezuela|United Socialist Party]] of Venezuela and allied parties claimed to have captured 67 percent of seats in the National Assembly, but that election was also disputed by EU and U.S. officials. Nevertheless, since then Maduro has exercised majority control of the Venezuelan parliament, displacing [[Juan Guaidó]] from his oppositional presidency.<ref>[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/7/venezuelan-president-maduro-claims-sweep-of-boycotted-election "Venezuela’s Guaido vows to challenge Maduro’s congress win"] ''aljazeera''. 7 Dec 2020. Accessed 23 April 2023.</ref> In 2024, the opposition denounces electoral fraud by [[political polarization]] under by [[Supreme trial of Venezuela]].

* {{in lang|es}} [httphttps://www.asambleanacionalvenezuelaasambleanacional.orggob.ve/ National Assembly website]