The Constitution of Venezuela of 1961 was approved on January 16, 1961, by the then Congress of the Republic with the affirmative vote of the four main political forces of the country at that time, Democratic Action, Democratic Republican Union, COPEI and the Communist Party of Venezuela. It came into force on January 23 of the same year in commemoration of the return to democracy in Venezuela on January 23, 1958. In December 1999 this text was repealed when the 1999 Constitution was approved by popular vote.

The National Assembly is the legislature for Venezuela that was first elected in 2000. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who were elected by a "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based party-list proportional representation system. The number of seats is constant, each state and the Capital district elected three representatives plus the result of dividing the state population by 1.1% of the total population of the country. Three seats are reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples and elected separately by all citizens, not just those with indigenous backgrounds. For the 2010 to 2015 the number of seats was 165. All deputies serve five-year terms. The National Assembly meets in the Federal Legislative Palace in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.