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imageCARACAS: Venezuela's opposition on Tuesday broke the government's 17-year grip on the legislature and vowed to force out President Nicolas Maduro despite failing for the time being to clinch its hoped-for "supermajority."

The National Assembly swore in deputies to 163 of the 167 seats, with four lawmakers -- three opposition and one pro-government -- suspended pending a lawsuit over alleged electoral fraud.

The new opposition speaker of the assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, said his side soon would take steps to force Maduro from office.

"Here and now, things will change," he said.

The head of the opposition group in congress, Julio Borges, vowed it would find "a method, a system to change the government through constitutional means."

The speaker said the process would be worked out within six months.

"Change is not dependent on any time-frame," Ramos Allup stressed. "We are looking at a change in outlook, a change in the system, at changing what is bad, very bad -- and soon will get worse."

The provisional loss of its three deputies leaves the opposition with a still-powerful three-fifths majority, enabling it to remove cabinet ministers from their posts, among other powers.

But it removes, at least temporarily, some powers Maduro's opponents would have had with a two-thirds "supermajority", including the ability to put legislation to a referendum and convene an assembly to draft a new constitution.

The opposition could use those powers to seek to force Maduro from power before the end of his term in 2019. It was not immediately clear what path within the constitution they might use.

But Maduro said he would defend Venezuela's democracy and stability "with an iron fist."

Lawmakers loyal to Maduro staged a walkout from the opening session of the new assembly.

They were outraged by opposition lawmakers' attempts to propose an amnesty for numerous politicians who the opposition says are political prisoners.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2016

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