Venezuela Assembly defies Supreme Court but fails to get quorum

Описание: Venezuela's opposition-held National Assembly has failed to meet for the first session since a controversial Supreme Court ruling on Monday.

National Assembly speaker Henry Ramos Allup said there was no quorum. He has scheduled a new session for Wednesday.

The Supreme Court has said all actions of the assembly are void until three banned members are removed from office.

The three members had been suspended for alleged electoral irregularities during the 6 December polls.

But the majority in the National Assembly defied the ruling and swore them in last week.

Government legislators say the lack of quorum shows that the opposition to President Nicolas Maduro is divided.

"The opposition bloc is made up of many factions and they are facing a dilemma," said Socialist Party MP and Venezuela's First Lady Cilia Flores.

"Some of them want to abide by the ruling, others have different views," she told Telesur television.

Mr Allup said the session had been suspended "because both government and opposition legislators failed to turn up".

The Supreme Court said its ruling applied to all acts that have been taken or will be taken by the current assembly.

The opposition bloc had vowed to continue meeting and working at the assembly as usual.

An amnesty law for imprisoned opposition politicians and activists was due to be tabled by the National Assembly leadership on Tuesday.
'Super-majority'

Four lawmakers were barred by the Supreme Court - three from the opposition and one allied with the government - after the Socialist Party alleged irregularities during last month's vote for a new congress.

The opposition claimed the the ruling was designed to strip it of crucial two-third majority which gives it extra powers such as removing judges from the top court.

Without the four legislators, the opposition has 109 seats and the government, 54. With the four banned legislators, the opposition gets the 112 seats it needs to get the so-called "super-majority".

The four politicians are all from the rural and sparsely populated south-western state of Amazonas.

"The logical, sane and democratic step is for the National Assembly's leadership to revoke the swearing-in of these lawmakers," said the Socialist Party deputy leader and former National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello.

If their swearing-in is revoked, the four seats will remain empty until a final decision by the Electoral Court on the alleged irregularities.

Venezuela's Supreme Court has almost always ruled in favour of the government during the last 17 years of socialist government under President Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.