CARACAS—Venezuela's top court ruled on Tuesday that dozens of politicians, among them leading opponents of President Hugo Chavez, will not be allowed to run in regional elections later this year.
The measure also blocks some government allies but is guaranteed to anger figures such as Leopoldo Lopez, the mayor of a wealthy Caracas neighborhood who had planned to stand for city mayor in November elections.
He had called for street protests if he was barred.
Other opposition politicians affected by the ruling include candidates for governor in three states. The elections will measure the popularity of Chavez's socialist government.
Venezuela's top anti-corruption official was behind the plan to ban close to 300 candidates accused of corruption from running in the elections.
Lopez had called for the move to be declared unconstitutional and a violation of his human rights, but the Supreme Court sided with the government.
"The Constitutional Chamber declares that the mentioned article is constitutional," the court said.
The disqualification of candidates is based on an anti-corruption law the government says was supported by opposition parties.
The opposition says Chavez, who has openly supported the move to block politicians accused of corruption, ordered the courts to disqualify candidates seen as a threat in key seats like Caracas and the nearby state of Miranda.
The politicians are blocked under a law that allows sanctions against public officials accused of corruption even before their cases come to trial.
Chavez lost a referendum last year on a reform that would have allowed him to run for reelection and speed up his plan to turn the oil exporting state into a socialist society.
Chavez's allies rule almost all Venezuela's states and cities, and analysts say he needs to preserve a big majority in order to carry out a second attempt to reform the constitution to run again in 2012 elections.
