were collected in the second petition stage, a recall vote would be held no sooner than 2017. However, the government cancelled the recall movement on 21 October 2017, with conventional media describing President Maduro as a dictator following the suspension of movement. After Venezuela entered into a constitutional crisis when the Supreme Tribunal removed power from the National Assembly, months of protests occurred in 2017, resulting in President Maduro calling for the rewriting of the constitution. The 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election took place, electing all pro-Maduro candidates to the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, removing power from the National Assembly once again. Voting system Electoral registration Under the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela, all Venezuelans over the age of 18 have the right to vote (Article 64). Additionally, long-term resident non-nationals over 18 (resident over 10 years) have the right to vote in regional and local elections (Article 64). Article 56 specifies that everyone has "the right to be registered free of charge with the Civil Registry Office after birth, and to obtain public documents constituting evidence of their biological identity, in accordance with the law." According to the National Electoral Council, the proportion of the voting-age population on the Electoral Register has risen from 80% in 1998 to 95% in 2011, with 19m (including nearly 100,000 voters outside Venezuela) registered in 2012 compared with 12m in 2003. Voters register fingerprints and identity card details onto the Electoral Register, and these are to be verified during the voting process. Electoral system Venezuela elects at a national level the President of Venezuela as head of state and head of government, and a unicameral federal legislature. The President is elected for a six-year term by direct election plurality voting, and is (since the 2009 Venezuelan constitutional referendum) eligible for re-election. The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) has 165 members (diputados), elected for five-year terms (see #Parliamentary voting system below). Party system Background Democracy in Venezuela developed during the twentieth century, with Democratic Action (founded in 1941) and its antecedents playing an important role in the early years. Democratic Action led the government during Venezuela's first democratic period (1945–1948). After an intervening decade of dictatorship (1948–1958) saw AD excluded from power, four Venezuelan presidents came from Democratic Action from the 1960s to the 1990s. This period, incorrectly called the "Fourth Republic" by Hugo Chavez and his followers, is marked by the development of the Punto