Venezuela’s opposition-controlled legislature yesterday suspended its session after the Supreme Court declared it null and void on grounds that the new speaker defied the judiciary by swearing in three banned lawmakers.
Speaker Henry Ramos Allup, a fiery opponent of President Nicolas Maduro, declared the National Assembly lacked a quorum and suspended its session until today morning.
Legislative sources said the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) was consulting its lawyers to decide how to respond to the ruling by the Supreme Court, which MUD accuses of pro-Maduro bias.
The opposition had initially vowed to press ahead with its session in defiance of the court’s decision.
The court ruled on Monday that all actions taken by the current National Assembly are invalid because it includes the three lawmakers from Amazonas state, where an investigation is under way into alleged vote-buying in last month’s legislative elections.
The opposition won the polls in a landslide, triggering a crisis for Maduro and the “revolution” launched by his late mentor Hugo Chavez in 1999.
But the suspension of the three lawmakers’ inauguration threatens to strip MUD of the powerful two-thirds majority it had vowed to use to force Maduro from power within six months.
Venezuela, the country with the world’s largest oil reserves, has sunk ever deeper into economic crisis as crude prices have plunged in recent months.
A deep recession and what analysts say is the world’s highest inflation rate have fuelled discontent with Maduro, whose term runs until 2019.
The court has emerged as a powerful player as reeling oil giant Venezuela embarks on a new era of divided government in the wake of the opposition’s landslide win in legislative elections last month, which delivered a crushing blow to Maduro and the “revolution” launched by his late mentor Hugo Chavez in 1999.
The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), accuses Maduro of packing the court with his allies.
The opposition has vowed to to force Maduro from office within six months.
The embattled president, whose term runs until 2019, has meanwhile vowed to fight the “bourgeois assembly” tooth and nail.
Just hours before the court ruling on Monday, MUD lawmakers had launched a legislative committee to probe alleged irregularities in the appointment of 13 judges to the 32-member Supreme Court.
Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) used an extraordinary session in the final hours of its legislative majority to push through the judges’ appointment, a move the opposition condemned as undemocratic.