Venezuelan Opposition Gains 2/3 Super Majority in National Assembly Elections

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) has published the final results of the Dec 6 electoral race for the National Assembly. The opposition holds a super majority of 112 seats, including three indigenous seats, of the 167-seat legislative body.

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Santa Elena, December 8th, 2015. (venezuelanalysis.com)- Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) has published the final results of the Dec 6 electoral race for the National Assembly. The opposition holds a super majority of 112 seats, including three indigenous seats, of the 167-seat legislative body.

The country’s opposition alliance Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) now holds 109 seats while the United Socialist Party (PSUV) has 55. The three elected indigenous representatives, while officially independent, campaigned from the opposition platform and will likely support the MUD inside the Assembly.

With a full two-thirds majority, the opposition will have the power to block new spending for social programs, grant amnesty to select prisoners, approve or revoke enabling laws, and remove magistrates of the Supreme Court. 

A two-thirds majority may also remove ministers and the Vice-President, revoke or modify organic laws, and convoke a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution.

The newly elected deputies will be sworn in during the first week of January.