Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro confirmed that the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) is to keep functioning until December 2020. As a result, the end of the ANC members’ term of office will coincide with National Assembly (AN) parliamentary elections. However, Maduro also said that such elections could be held “at any time of the year,” and not necessarily in December 2020, as dictated by the Constitution. Maduro is expected to provide more details on the legislative elections in the coming weeks.

“No organism can dissolve the ANC,” declared Maduro. Although the ANC was established for a two-year term in August 2017 with the aim of drafting a new constitution, this has not yet occurred. However, the ANC has made use of the National Assembly’s legislative powers given that the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) declared the latter in contempt in 2017.

Maduro also asked for the renewal of the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the election of new CNE authorities, as this forms part of the agreements signed last September 16 between the ruling party and a sector of the opposition not allied with Juan Guaidó. Finally, Maduro accused both Guaidó and opposition leader Leopoldo López of spearheading “a conspiracy against the Venezuelan government.”