The Assembly convened 3 August 1999. On 12 August 1999, the new constitutional assembly voted to give themselves the power to abolish government institutions and to dismiss officials who were perceived as being corrupt or operating only in their own interests. Chávez and his supporters had discussed dissolving both the Supreme Court and the Congress. The constitutional assembly had the power to perform such an action, and had already fired almost sixty judges whom it accused as being involved in corruption. The ANC also offered more power to Chávez, it helped him broaden the powers given to the president, and allowed him to call a general election for all public office positions —many of which weren't controlled at the time by Chávez or the
Movimiento Quinta República. Soto believes that the ANC enabled Chávez to "design a genius political strategy to take over all the spaces in the Venezuelan State." Although the Chavismo obtained near absolute control of the Constituent Assembly, it did not mean that Chávez did not find opposition within his own supporters to several of his proposals for the new Constitution. There were several important changes pushed by Chávez which had initially been discarded by the Constituent Assembly, and which were only admitted under direct pressure from the President. Among the main ones were the inclusion of the term "Bolivarian" in the official name of Venezuela, the suppression of the voting "second round" or ballot, and the restriction of the taxing powers of the states. Congressmen from Democratic Action, Copei and Project Venezuela protested the measure, which they called a
coup d'état, and called for an emergency session in the Federal Palace.
Aristóbulo Istúriz, president of the Constituent Assembly warned them that "the people would shut them down" if they tried to do so. On 27 August, opposition congressmen tried to enter the Congress but were repelled by Chavista sympathizers, who injured thirty of the first ones when they tried to jump over the fence surrounding the building. The Catholic Church mediated between the Constituent Assembly and the Congress, but although they managed to reach an agreement, the Congress continued to be reduced to its new role of delegated commission, sharing the building with the Constituent. Although in theory the Constituent Assembly also had the power to intervene the executive branch, the presidential powers, governors and mayors were left untouched, although the
Fatherland For All party, then part of the ruling party, considered he idea of removing three opposition governors using the constituent power. For his part, Chávez did not oppose to be ratified by the body, and was sworn in again before the Constituent. After over three months of work, the Constituent presented its draft constitution on 19 November, which was only opposed by four constituents:
Claudio Fermín,
Alberto Franceschi,
Jorge Olavarría and
Virgilio Ávila Vivas, who argued that power was being centralized and that a military estate was going to be formed. A referendum was then called for 15 December in order to approve or reject the text. Democratic Action, Copei, Justice First, Project Venezuela and
Fedecamaras campaigned against the approval of the Constitution. Although these forces agreed that a new Magna Carta was necessary in general, they were in complete disagreement with the result, where their representation had been symbolic. The draft was approved in the referendum in December 1999. ==Constitutional changes==