CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced on Twitter he would be sworn in for a second six-year term on Thursday, overlooking a law under which his inauguration was to be held next January.
Maduro, re-elected Sunday in a poll boycotted by the main opposition parties, said he would take the oath of office before the Constituent Assembly, which he set up himself last year and stacked with his supporters.
“Today I will be before the National Constituent Assembly, endowed with full powers, to take the oath as re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for the period 2019-2025, by the will of the free and sovereign people,” he said on Twitter.
Later, he plans to attend an event at the defense ministry in Caracas to receive a “reaffirmation of loyalty” from the armed forces’ high command.
Sunday’s vote was widely condemned by the international community, including the United States, which denounced it as a “sham.”
Venezuela’s constitution states that the president must be sworn in before parliament, where the opposition holds the majority and which has in practice been replaced by the Constituent Assembly.