Venezuela opposition: Court blocking of 4 lawmakers a ‘coup’

The court must now hear arguments in the case, for which there is no timetable.

The court also agreed to hear legal challenges to the election of another six opposition deputies, but dismissed requests for similar injunctions in those cases, according to information posted on the court’s website.

Winning the appeal could lead to the elections being repeated.

The coalition captured 112 of 167 seats, giving it by one seat a two-thirds majority that would allow it to rein in socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), which is a coalition of opposition groups, believes the allegations are an attempt to retroactively steal the election.

That would deny MUD its supermajority control over congress, preventing the opposition from legislating unilaterally or attempting to remove the president from office. In recent weeks, the government has announced it will be setting up a grassroots assembly in the same building as the National Assembly.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela’s opposition is calling a Supreme Court decision that bars four recently-elected lawmakers from taking their seats in the National Assembly part of a “judicial coup” and has vowed to uphold the voters’ will when a new session starts next week.

“We’re not living in a functional democracy”, Torrealba said a Tuesday press conference with several leaders of the incoming congress. “We’re living in a country where you can be surer about the operating hours of a liquor store than the elections tribunal of the Supreme Court”.

President Maduro has convened a meeting of socialist supporters for January to set the course for the “Bolivarian revolution”, which his party advocates.

The opposition won a landslide victory in December 6 legislative elections, taking control of congress for the first time in more than a decade.

President Nicolás Maduro has held power since 2013 when his predecessor Hugo Chavez died.

With both sides digging in, the threat of a return of the sort of street violence and clashes that paralyzed the oil-rich nation in 2014 is looming.

Torrealba is also urging opposition supporters to show up that day at the congress to peacefully accompany the new lawmakers as they take up their seats. The opposition majority comes to power on January 5, and did not have the votes to stop the appointments.

But the PSUV has lodged appeals against the election of eight MUD legislators that, if successful, would take away the opposition alliance’s two-thirds majority.