VENEZUELA’S opposition, emboldened by US support, declared “zero hour” in its bid to topple the democratically elected socialist government on Monday.

Leaders of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition gathered for the announcement of their takeover plan a day after their unauthorised referendum seeking a mandate for regime change.

National Assembly vice-president and Popular Will (VP) acting leader Freddy Guevara said the Mud-controlled parliament would announce the results of the “plebiscite” yesterday.

In the poll, the Mud asked voters to reject President Nicolas Maduro’s calling of an assembly to redraft the constitution, demand the army support the opposition and back a “national unity government.”

But before the announcement of the result Mr Guevara said the Mud-dominated parliament would form a new government today — a move beyond its constitutional powers — along with 1,020 local “zero-hour committees.”

He called a “national general strike” for tomorrow and announced that on Friday the parliament would appoint new judges — again exceeding its powers.

The Mud revised its claim for the number of votes cast in its referendum up from 7.1 million to 7.6 million. But it burnt all records of the vote from its 2,000 unofficial polling stations, preventing any independent audit.

Investigative TV programme La Iguana said it had obtained internal Mud figures showing Sunday’s true turnout was just 3.6 million, less than half the vote Mr Maduro — or his Mud rival Henrique Capriles — received in 2013’s presidential election.

An undercover video report circulated on the internet showed one man voting no less than seven times at different polling stations around the capital Caracas.

Meanwhile US President Donald Trump threatened further sanctions against Venezuela if the election of 545 constituent assembly members goes ahead. “The US will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles,” he said.

“If the Maduro regime imposes its constituent assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions.”

In a statement yesterday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said the US threat “shows its absolute bias towards the violent and extremist sectors of Venezuelan politics, which favor the use of terrorism to overthrow a popular and democratic government.”