CARACAS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly (ANC) on Wednesday swore in the 18 loyalist governors who won their positions in Sunday's regional elections, while five opposition governors refused to take part.
In an official ceremony, ANC President Delcy Rodriguez said that the winners were formally "invested as state governors."
She added that the governors "are here to ratify their commitment...to peace and the defense of our nation, and carry out the best management always side by side with our people, take care of our men and women, of our children, of our elderly."
Referring to the election, Rodriguez said it had been an "election which broke electoral schemes and models and methods. Each campaign had its own identity."
Venezuela's opposition, Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) ruled out on Wednesday that its five candidates who won gubernatorial elections at the weekend would swear an oath to the National Constituent Assembly.
Through a statement, the MUD said that its governors "will only swear an oath before God and the respective legislative councils, but not before the fraudulent ANC."
The ANC, elected this year, has been the target of global controversy by domestic and foreign critics who view it as a rubber-stamp legal body for the government of President Nicolas Maduro, designed to replace the National Assembly which had been controlled by a MUD majority.
The opposition group added that asking the new governors to swear an oath in front of the ANC was "blackmail" by the government.
The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 18 of Venezuela's 23 regional governorship elections on Sunday, but the opposition party, which obtained five, refused to recognized the results.
