CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Monday a national vote to create a new "constituent" National Assembly legislature in order to defuse a bitter political conflict after a month of anti-government protests.

Opponents say the move is another attempt to sideline the current opposition-led National Assembly and keep the unpopular Maduro in power in the midst of a bruising recession and unrest that has led to 29 deaths in the last month. </s> Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro says he is ready to stand for re-election following a move by the government-allied Constituent Assembly to call for an early presidential election.

The National Constituent Assembly announced on Tuesday that a presidential election would be held by the end of April, describing the move as evidence of the country’s democratic credentials.

Maduro, who has been in office since 2013, said later in the day that he would run if he received the ruling Socialist Party’s nomination.

“I am a humble worker, a humble man of the people,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “If the United Socialist Party of Venezuela... believes that I should be the presidential candidate... I’m at your service.”

Top party official Diosdado Cabello confirmed to the Assembly that Maduro would be the party’s sole candidate.

“We are not going to have a problem,” Cabello said. “We have only one candidate to continue with the revolution.”

The assembly has now called on the National Electoral Council to finalize the date of the election. The poll, which had been initially scheduled to be held by the end of the year, was brought forward to demonstrate the administration’s commitment to democracy, according to government officials.

The Venezuelan opposition, which has constantly called for a new presidential election amid a political crisis in the country, now accuses Maduro of “merely dressing up authoritarianism in the guise of democracy.”

“A government that is a product of force or an electoral trap cannot survive at an international level,” Henry Ramos Allup, a prominent opposition leader and member of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, wrote on Twitter.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable coalition has two primary contenders, Henrique Capriles Radonski and Henry Ramos Allup.

Capriles, a two-time presidential candidate, who lost to Maduro in the 2013 election, is banned from running for office, however. </s> Maduro puts himself at party’s disposal for re-election to presidency

Caracas, Jan 23 (EFE).- President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday placed himself “at the disposal” of Venezuela’s PSUV party and the Great Patriotic Pole coalition as a candidate for re-election in the nationwide balloting that will be held in May.



“If the PSUV, if the forces of the GPP … if the working class, the youth believe that I should be the presidential candidate for the homeland … I’m at (their) disposal,” Maduro told the media at an event in downtown Caracas.



The Constituent National Assembly (ANC), comprised only of government supporters, on Tuesday approved a decree to hold the presidential election scheduled for this year during the first quarter.



If selected by his party as its presidential candidate, Maduro would be running for a six-year term, after being initially elected on April 14, 2013, one month after the death of former President Hugo Chavez, who tapped Maduro as his successor and called upon Chavista forces to back him at the polls.



Maduro, who is also president of the PSUV, congratulated the ANC for decreeing the election “with an eye to strengthening the democratic spirit (and) the peace of the country,” adding that calling the election for the first quarter was the “correct step.”



He also called upon the opposition to participate in the vote.

 Holding “balanced” elections under the supervision of the National Election Council (CNE) is one of the requests being made by the opposition in its negotiations with the government in the talks being hosted by the Dominican Republic.



Four of the five officials comprising the CNE are Chavistas and the council has been accused of multiple irregularities during the current government, including inflating participation data for the July 30 election, during which the ANC members were elected.



Thus, the opposition has no faith in the institution and has asked that its top officials be replaced, for qualified international observers to oversee any balloting and other measures to guarantee “clean and competitive” elections. </s> (RTTNews) - Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly, controlled by representatives from the ruling administration, agreed on Tuesday to call presidential elections in the first four months of 2018.

The bill was raised by the representative Diosdado Cabello, number two in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Traditionally, Venezuela celebrates presidential elections in December.

The call has been one of the constant requests of the opposition to solve the political and social crisis in which the country is engulfed. The National Electoral Council must set the date of the elections, in which the president NicolÃ¡s Maduro could seek re-election after completing six years of office.

In the last presidential elections, held in April 2013, months after Hugo ChÃ¡vez died, Maduro defeated the opposition leader Henrique Capriles. </s> Venezuela's constitutional assembly has ordered presidential elections by April 30 as the ruling socialist party seeks to consolidate its grip on power amid a worsening economic crisis.

President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that he is ready to seek re-election after his allies pushed forward voting in a move widely seen as a bid to capitalise on disarray in the Venezuelan opposition.

The election has been ordered to take place months ahead of when the country's presidential voting has traditionally taken place.

Mr Maduro said the ruling socialist party would settle on a single consensus candidate at a convention on February 4.

If selected, he said, he would relish the opportunity to measure up against his opponents. He called on the National Electoral Council to set as near a date as possible for the presidential election.

"They should find the closest date, to get this out of the way so we can begin to make a great revolution," a jubilant Maduro told hundreds of redshirted supporters at a rally to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of Venezuela's last military dictatorship. "If it was in my hands, the election would be this weekend," he added.

While Venezuelans had been expecting an early election, the announcement came as somewhat of a surprise because talks between the opposition and government have been taking place in the Dominican Republic for weeks - so far without a breakthrough.

The opposition has been using those talks to push for guarantees that voting will be free and fair, with the participation of independent foreign monitors.

Foreign ministers from 14 mostly conservative Latin American governments meeting in Chile to discuss Venezuela criticised the announcement of an early election, saying in a harshly worded statement that it was "impossible" for the ballot's outcome to be credible under current conditions.

Mexico, one of several foreign governments mediating the talks in the Dominican Republic, said it was withdrawing its support for the talks to protest the government's move.

When asked about Mr Maduro running for another six-year term, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said: "I don't think that's a good idea."

Mr Maduro was accompanied at the rally by Diosdado Cabello, the number two leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

It was Mr Cabello, seen as Mr Maduro's biggest internal rival, who earlier on Tuesday proposed holding the election by the end of April, saying it was the best way to counter criticism by the US and others that Venezuela is descending into dictatorship.

While he did not explicitly endorse Maduro, he praised him as the hand-picked successor of the late President Hugo Chavez and said the revolution would easily settle on a single candidate.

"We're not going to have any problem," Cabello said to thunderous applause during Tuesday's raucous session of the constitutional assembly.

This would be Venezuela's fourth election since a July vote installed the constitutional assembly, which has been condemned internationally as a naked power grab by Mr Maduro.

According to Venezuela's constitution, a new six-year presidential term must begin in January 2019. While an election can be held any time before then, voting is typically held in the final three months of the year to avoid an extended transition.

Although polls say Venezuelans overwhelmingly blame Mr Maduro for widespread food shortages and triple-digit inflation that has pulverised wages, the opposition was left rudderless as several prominent politicians were barred from office or forced into exile last year following a deadly protest movement seeking the president's removal. </s> Venezuela's constitutional assembly has ordered presidential elections by April 30 as the ruling socialist party seeks to consolidate its grip on power amid a worsening economic crisis.

The proposal was approved unanimously by delegates during a session Tuesday by the pro-government assembly.

According to Venezuela's constitution, a new six-year presidential term must begin in January 2019. While elections can be held any time before then, recent votes have been held toward the end of the year to avoid an extended transition period.

Speculation has grown in recent weeks that elections would be held in the first part of the year to take advantage of divisions among the opposition, which has been struggling to capitalize on growing discontent with Maduro. </s> (CNN) Here's a look at the life of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.



Worked as a bus driver for Caracas Metro and belonged to the transit union.

After Chavez's release, Maduro helps him to found the political party Fifth Republic Movement.

1999 - Maduro is elected to the National Constituent Assembly, the body convened to draft a new constitution.

2000 - Is elected to the National Assembly, the country's legislative branch of government

2005-2006 - Serves as Speaker of the National Assembly.

October 12, 2012 - Is selected by President Chavez to serve as his vice president.

December 9, 2012 - Facing his fourth surgery for cancer, Chavez endorses Maduro to succeed him.

March 8, 2013 - Is sworn in as interim president following the death of Chavez three days earlier.

April 14, 2013 - Wins the presidential election by fewer than two percentage points over Henrique Capriles Radonski.

April 19, 2013 - Maduro is sworn in a day after the National Electoral Council announces plans to complete an audit of votes cast in the April 14 election "to preserve a climate of harmony between Venezuelans."

September 30, 2013 - Maduro announces on state-run VTV that he is expelling three US diplomats. He claims they were involved in a widespread power outage earlier in the month. "Get out of Venezuela," he says, listing several names. "Yankee go home. Enough abuses already."

February 22, 2014 - Venezuela re-issues press credentials for CNN journalists in the country.

July 31, 2017 - US Treasury Department sanctions freeze Maduro's assets subject to US jurisdiction and bar US citizens from dealing with him. This comes a day after elections are held for a new lawmaking body in Venezuela. The department says the National Constituent Assembly US Treasury Department sanctions freeze Maduro's assets subject to US jurisdiction and bar US citizens from dealing with him. This comes a day after elections are held for a new lawmaking body in Venezuela. The department says the National Constituent Assembly "aspires illegitimately to usurp the constitutional role of the democratically elected National Assembly, rewrite the constitution, and impose an authoritarian regime on the people of Venezuela." </s> CARACAS, VENEZUELA—Caracas residents blocked streets with broken concrete and twisted metal and flaming piles of trash Tuesday to protest the socialist president’s bid to rewrite the constitution amid a deepening political crisis. President Nicolas Maduro signed a decree Monday to begin the process of rewriting the country’s charter. Opposition leaders called the planned constitutional assembly a ploy to put off regional elections scheduled for this year and a presidential election that was to be held in 2018. Polling suggests the socialists would lose both those elections badly at a time of widespread anger over triple-digit inflation and shortages of food and other goods. Speaking hours after yet another big anti-government march ended in rock throwing and tear gas, Maduro said a new constitution was needed to restore peace. “This will be a citizens’ assembly made up of workers,” the president said Monday. “The day has come brothers. Don’t fail me now.”

Venezuelans President Nicolas Maduro says he’s open to talk with opposition on crisis Venezuela opposition asks Wall Street to cut off Maduro as protests continue The president was vague about how members of the constitutional assembly would be chosen. He hinted some would selected by voters, but many observers expect the selection process to favour the socialists. If the constitutional process goes forward, opposition leaders will need to focus on getting at least some sympathetic figures included in the assembly. That could distract them from organizing the near-daily street protests that have kept up for four weeks, political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said. “It’s a way of calling elections that uses up energy but does not carry risk, because it’s not a universal, direct and secret vote,” Leon said. “And it has the effect of pushing out the possibility of elections this year and probably next year as well.”

Venezuela’s constitution was last rewritten in 1999, early in the 14-year presidency of the late Hugo Chavez, who launched a socialist revolution in the oil-exporting nation. Chavez called his new constitution the best in the world, and promised it would last centuries. He carried around a blue pocket-sized version of the document, and would often whip it out and say, “This is our Bible. After the Bible, this.” At the height of his popularity, people would mob him to ask that he sign their copies. The opposition immediately seized on Maduro’s proposal for a new charter as evidence that his mentor’s revolution lies in shambles. The president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Julio Borges, called a constitutional assembly a “giant fraud” by Maduro and his allies designed to keep them in power. Borges said it would deny Venezuelans the right to express their views at the ballot box, and he urged the military to prevent the “coup” by Maduro. “What the Venezuelan people want isn’t to change the constitution but to change Maduro through voting,” he said. The opposition called for another major demonstration Wednesday. Police repressed scattered protests Tuesday with tear gas, as they have nearly daily for weeks. At least 29 people have died in the unrest of the past month and hundreds have been injured. On Tuesday, the government suspended for 180 days the right to carry guns.

The unrest began in reaction to an attempt to nullify the opposition controlled-congress, but has become a vehicle for people to vent their fury at Venezuela’s economic ruin and violent crime. Residents manning the barricades that choked streets across the capital Tuesday vowed to protest until Maduro leaves office. “Unlike some of these young people, I remember a time before the socialists. Now is not the time for fear,” said 36 year-old chauffeur Ricardo Herrera as he arranged trash and pieces of concrete into a street barricade in front of his apartment building. Herrera had so far sat out the protests because he had to get to work, but decided after Maduro’s announcement that he could no longer stand by. “No one is going to work today. If we back down now, we’ll be under their boot for the rest of our lives,” he said. </s> Move to exclude political parties from constitution-writing entity seen by opposition parties as bid to sideline them.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has announced the creation of a new popular assembly with the ability to rewrite the constitution, a move that opponents labelled a power grab aimed at defusing anti-government protests.

The opposition has been demanding general elections to try and end the socialists' 18-year rule.

"I don't want a civil war," Maduro told a large May Day rally of supporters in Caracas business hub, while elsewhere across the city security forces fired tear gas at youth hurling stones and petrol bombs after opposition marches were blocked.

Maduro has triggered an article of the constitution that creates a super-body known as a "constituent assembly".

It can dissolve public powers and call general elections, echoing a previous assembly created by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, in 1999 soon after he won office.

"I convoke the original constituent power to achieve the peace needed by the Republic, defeat the fascist coup, and let the sovereign people impose peace, harmony and true national dialogue," Maduro told red-shirted supporters.

The new constitution-writing entity would be "a citizen's constituent body, not from political parties - a people's constituent body," he said, adding that the National Electoral Council would start work on the process on Tuesday.

Only half of the 500-member assembly, or less, would be elected, he said.

Opponents fear Maduro would stuff the assembly with supporters and manipulate the elected seats by giving extra weight to pro-government workers and unions.

They said it was another attempt to sideline the current opposition-led National Assembly and potentially avoid elections amid a bruising recession and protests that have led to 29 deaths in the last month.

Julio Borges, National Assembly president, on Monday evening called on Venezuelans to rebel.

"This is a scam to deceive the Venezuelan people with a mechanism that is nothing more than a coup," Borges said, urging Venezuelans to block streets early on Tuesday and hold another march on Wednesday.

On Monday night, opposition supporters banged on empty pots and pans from their windows in a traditional Latin American form of protest.

"People, into the streets! You must disobey such lunacy!" opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Twitter.

Since anti-Maduro unrest began in early April, more than 400 people have been injured and hundreds more arrested.

READ MORE: Venezuela's crisis explained from the beginning

While Maduro alleges a US-backed coup plot, opponents say he has wrecked the economy and become a tyrant.

Earlier on Monday riot police officers clashed with hundreds of protesters, some throwing stones, who tried to break through security barriers to the electoral council headquarters.

National Guard troops shot tear gas in a district of west Caracas towards hundreds of opposition protesters who were gathering to march.

Elsewhere, the National Guard blocked marchers pouring towards a major highway in front of the Avila mountain which towers over Caracas' northern edge.

Opposition supporters cheered as youth ran to the front, carrying makeshift shields made from rubbish bin lids, wood and even a satellite dish.

Some, wearing motorbike helmets, swimming goggles or bandanas over their mouths, threw stones and petrol bombs at the security line, with a protester yelling, "No one turn back!"

Others blocked roads in Caracas' wealthier Chacao area with branches and fences.
The National Constituent Assembly approved a decree that calls for presidential elections before April 30. Incumbent Nicolás Maduro says he will compete for re-election.