National Assembly of Venezuela
Encyclopedia
The National Assembly is the legislative
branch of the Venezuela
n government. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based party-list proportional representation
system. The number of seats is not constant, each state and the Capital district elect three representatives plus the result of dividing the state population by 1.1% of the total population of the country. Three seats are reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples and elected separately by all citizens, not just those with indigenous backgrounds. For the 2010-2015 period the number of seats is 165. All deputies serve five-year terms.
(Senado) and a Chamber of Deputies
(Cámara de Diputados).
The Senate was made up of two senators per state
, two for the Federal District, and a number of ex officio senators intended to represent the nation's minorities. In addition, former presidents (those elected democratically or their replacements legally appointed to serve at least half a presidential term) were awarded lifetime senate seats
.
Senators were required to be Venezuelan-born citizens and over the age of 30.
The members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by direct universal suffrage, with each state returning at least two. Deputies had to be at least 21 years old.
was first elected in December 1998 on a platform calling for a National Constituent Assembly
to be convened to draft a new constitution
for Venezuela. Chávez's argument was that the existing political system, under the earlier 1961 Constitution, had become isolated from the people. This won broad acceptance, particularly among Venezuela's poorest classes, who had seen a significant decline in their living standards over the previous decade and a half. The National Constituent Assembly (ANC), consisting of 131 elected individuals, convened in August 1999 to begin rewriting the constitution. In free elections, voters gave all but six seats to persons associated with the Chávez movement.
The Venezuelan people approved the ANC's proposed constitution in a referendum on 15 December 1999. It was promulgated by the ANC and came into effect the following 20 December.
of deputies to the new National Assembly took place on 30 July 2000. President Hugo Chávez
' Fifth Republic Movement
won 92 seats (56%). The opposition did not attend to the 2005 elections
, and as a result gained no seats, while the Fifth Republic Movement gained 114 (69%). In 2007 a number of parties, including the Fifth Republic Movement, merged to create the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
(PSUV), which in January 2009 held 139 of the 169 seats (84%). In the 2010 election
, for which the number of deputies was reduced to 165, the PSUV won 96 seats, the opposition electoral coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática
65, and Patria Para Todos won 2. The new deputies begin their terms in 5 January 2011.
1999 Constitution, the legislative branch of Government in Venezuela is represented by a unicameral National Assembly. The Assembly is made up of 165 deputies
(diputados), who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote on a national party-list proportional representation
system. In addition, three deputies are returned on a state-by-state basis, and three seats are reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples.
All deputies serve five-year terms and must appoint a replacement (suplente) to stand in for them in during periods of incapacity or absence (Art. 186). Under the 1999 constitution deputies could be reelected on up to two occasions (Art. 192); under the Venezuelan constitutional referendum, 2009
these term limits were removed. 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).
Beyond passing legislation (and being able to block any of the president's legislative initiatives), the Assembly has a number of specific powers outlined in Article 187, including approving the budget, initiating impeachment
proceedings against most government officials (including ministers and the Vice President, but not the President, who can only be removed through a recall referendum) and appointing the members of the electoral, judicial, and prosecutorial branches of government. Among others it also has the power to authorise foreign and domestic military action and to authorise the President to leave the national territory for more than 5 days.
, representatives were elected under a mixed member proportional representation
, with 60% elected in single seat districts and the remainder by closed party list proportional representation
. This was an adaptation of the system previously used for the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies
, which had been introduced in 1993, with a 50-50 balance between single seat districts and party lists, and deputies per state proportional to population, but with a minimum of three deputies per state.
For the 2010 election
, the Ley Orgánica de Procesos Electorales (LOPE) among other changes reduced the party list proportion to 30%. In addition, the law completely separated the district vote and the party list votes, creating a system of parallel voting
. Previously, parties winning nominal district seats had had these subtracted from the total won under the proportional party list, which had encouraged parties to game the system by creating separate parties for the party list.
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
branch of the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n government. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based party-list proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
system. The number of seats is not constant, each state and the Capital district elect three representatives plus the result of dividing the state population by 1.1% of the total population of the country. Three seats are reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples and elected separately by all citizens, not just those with indigenous backgrounds. For the 2010-2015 period the number of seats is 165. All deputies serve five-year terms.
1961 Constitution
Under its previous 1961 Constitution, Venezuela had a bicameral legislature, known as the Congress (Congreso). This Congress was composed of a SenateSenate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...
(Senado) and a Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...
(Cámara de Diputados).
The Senate was made up of two senators per state
States of Venezuela
Venezuela is divided into 23 states , 1 Capital District and the Federal Dependencies that consist of a large number of Venezuelan islands...
, two for the Federal District, and a number of ex officio senators intended to represent the nation's minorities. In addition, former presidents (those elected democratically or their replacements legally appointed to serve at least half a presidential term) were awarded lifetime senate seats
Senator for life
A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , 7 Italian Senators out of 322, 4 out of the 47 Burundian Senators and all members of the British House of Lords have lifetime tenure...
.
Senators were required to be Venezuelan-born citizens and over the age of 30.
The members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by direct universal suffrage, with each state returning at least two. Deputies had to be at least 21 years old.
1999 Constitution
President Hugo ChávezHugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
was first elected in December 1998 on a platform calling for a National Constituent Assembly
Constituent assembly
A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...
to be convened to draft a new constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
for Venezuela. Chávez's argument was that the existing political system, under the earlier 1961 Constitution, had become isolated from the people. This won broad acceptance, particularly among Venezuela's poorest classes, who had seen a significant decline in their living standards over the previous decade and a half. The National Constituent Assembly (ANC), consisting of 131 elected individuals, convened in August 1999 to begin rewriting the constitution. In free elections, voters gave all but six seats to persons associated with the Chávez movement.
The Venezuelan people approved the ANC's proposed constitution in a referendum on 15 December 1999. It was promulgated by the ANC and came into effect the following 20 December.
Political composition
The first electionVenezuelan parliamentary election, 2000
A parliamentary election was held in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on 30 July 2000, having been postponed from the original date of 28 May for technical reasons. This was the first election held under Venezuela's newly adopted 1999 constitution...
of deputies to the new National Assembly took place on 30 July 2000. President Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
' Fifth Republic Movement
Fifth Republic Movement
The Fifth Republic Movement was a left-wing, Socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to support the candidacy of Hugo Chávez, the current President of Venezuela, in the Venezuelan presidential...
won 92 seats (56%). The opposition did not attend to the 2005 elections
Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2005
The 2005 Venezuela parliamentary election took place on 4 December 2005. The election sent 167 deputies to the National Assembly of Venezuela, 12 deputies to the Latin American Parliament and 5 deputies to the Andean Parliament...
, and as a result gained no seats, while the Fifth Republic Movement gained 114 (69%). In 2007 a number of parties, including the Fifth Republic Movement, merged to create the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
United Socialist Party of Venezuela
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela is the name of a democratic socialist political party in Venezuela which resulted from the fusion of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivarian Revolution led by incumbent President Hugo Chávez...
(PSUV), which in January 2009 held 139 of the 169 seats (84%). In the 2010 election
Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2010
The 2010 parliamentary election in Venezuela took place on 26 September 2010 to elect the 165 deputies to the National Assembly. Venezuelan opposition parties, which had boycotted the previous election, thus allowing the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela to gain a two-thirds...
, for which the number of deputies was reduced to 165, the PSUV won 96 seats, the opposition electoral coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática
Mesa de la Unidad Democrática
The Mesa de la Unidad Democrática is an electoral coalition of Venezuelan political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to President Hugo Chávez' United Socialist Party of Venezuela in the Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2010...
65, and Patria Para Todos won 2. The new deputies begin their terms in 5 January 2011.
Structure and powers
Under the new BolivarianBolivarian Revolution
The “Bolivarian Revolution” refers to a leftist social movement and political process in Venezuela led by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, the founder of the Fifth Republic Movement...
1999 Constitution, the legislative branch of Government in Venezuela is represented by a unicameral National Assembly. The Assembly is made up of 165 deputies
Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...
(diputados), who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote on a national party-list proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
system. In addition, three deputies are returned on a state-by-state basis, and three seats are reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples.
All deputies serve five-year terms and must appoint a replacement (suplente) to stand in for them in during periods of incapacity or absence (Art. 186). Under the 1999 constitution deputies could be reelected on up to two occasions (Art. 192); under the Venezuelan constitutional referendum, 2009
Venezuelan constitutional referendum, 2009
The 2009 referendum was a vote in which the citizens of Venezuela approved Amendment No. 1 of the Constitution of Venezuela; this abolished term limits for the offices of President, state governors, mayors and National Assembly deputies.The current constitution, enacted in 1999 by referendum,...
these term limits were removed. 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).
Beyond passing legislation (and being able to block any of the president's legislative initiatives), the Assembly has a number of specific powers outlined in Article 187, including approving the budget, initiating impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
proceedings against most government officials (including ministers and the Vice President, but not the President, who can only be removed through a recall referendum) and appointing the members of the electoral, judicial, and prosecutorial branches of government. Among others it also has the power to authorise foreign and domestic military action and to authorise the President to leave the national territory for more than 5 days.
Electoral system
In the Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2000Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2000
A parliamentary election was held in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on 30 July 2000, having been postponed from the original date of 28 May for technical reasons. This was the first election held under Venezuela's newly adopted 1999 constitution...
, representatives were elected under a mixed member proportional representation
Mixed member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...
, with 60% elected in single seat districts and the remainder by closed party list proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
. This was an adaptation of the system previously used for the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies
Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies
The Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of Venezuela's legislative under its 1961 constitution; the Venezuelan Senate was the upper house...
, which had been introduced in 1993, with a 50-50 balance between single seat districts and party lists, and deputies per state proportional to population, but with a minimum of three deputies per state.
For the 2010 election
Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2010
The 2010 parliamentary election in Venezuela took place on 26 September 2010 to elect the 165 deputies to the National Assembly. Venezuelan opposition parties, which had boycotted the previous election, thus allowing the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela to gain a two-thirds...
, the Ley Orgánica de Procesos Electorales (LOPE) among other changes reduced the party list proportion to 30%. In addition, the law completely separated the district vote and the party list votes, creating a system of parallel voting
Parallel voting
Parallel voting describes a mixed voting system where voters in effect participate in two separate elections for a single chamber using different systems, and where the results in one election have little or no impact on the results of the other...
. Previously, parties winning nominal district seats had had these subtracted from the total won under the proportional party list, which had encouraged parties to game the system by creating separate parties for the party list.
External links
- 1999 Constitution (unofficial English translation) National Assembly website Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela (html) Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela (pdf) 1961 Constitution amended as of 1983