Venezuela to push ahead with assembly in July despite unrest

Caraccas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vowed on Tuesday to push ahead with a new "constituent assembly" to rewrite the constitution, despite dissent within his own ranks and major protests in the OPEC nation convulsed by nearly two months of unrest.

The head of the pro-government electoral council said voting for the congress would be held in late July, while regional elections, meant to be held in 2016, would take place on Dec. 10.

Lambasting the planned assembly as an attempt to avoid a presidential election, the opposition vowed to double down on street protests and called on supporters to march to the electoral council on Wednesday.

In the latest sign of internal fissures, a Supreme Court magistrate spoke out against the assembly, saying it was "not the solution to the crisis" and called on Maduro to "think carefully" to avoid more bloodshed.

At least 53 people have been killed as a result of unrest that began in early April. Riots and looting have underlined risks that protests could spin out of control given widespread hunger, anger at Maduro and easy access to weapons in one of the world`s most violent countries.

Undeterred by opposition, Maduro on Tuesday presented the 540-member "constituent assembly" project as a cure to Venezuela`s demonstrations, which he says are a U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow "21st century socialism."

"Votes or bullets, what do the people want?" Maduro asked a crowd of red-shirted supporters waving Venezuelan flags at the Miraflores presidential palace.

"Let`s go to elections now!" he said, before detailing how the new assembly would be partially elected by votes at a municipal level and partly by different groups, including workers, farmers, students and indigenous people.

Opposition leaders say the project is a sham to avoid a general election and keep Maduro in power despite an oil-rich economy in a tailspin.

"Maduro and the electoral council think that the country and its opposition leaders are dumb, that we`re going to start bickering over governorships while they get away with fraud," opposition lawmaker Miguel Pizarro said on Tuesday night.

In the most telling sign of internal rumblings against Maduro, Venezuela`s state prosecutor panned his plan for a grassroots congress and warned it risked deepening the crisis.

Venezuelans are scrutinizing the government and the armed forces for any further cracks as protesters take to the streets daily to demand early elections, humanitarian aid to alleviate food and medicine shortages, and freedom for jailed activists.

"Persistent and increasingly violent unrest will eventually prompt key stakeholders to abandon Maduro and negotiate a rapid transition that sets a timetable for new elections; the precise timing is impossible to predict, however," the Eurasia Group political consultancy said in a note to clients on Tuesday.