July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's Supreme Court has been delayed in ruling on the constitutionality of a ban keeping hundreds of citizens from running in regional elections because of an unusually high case load, the court's top judge said.

Opposition parties today said the government's list of ``ineligibles'' is designed to keep their candidates from running in this year's state and city elections and is illegal. Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales said the tribunal is preparing to make a ruling on a handful of the cases, without giving a specific date.

``If the idea is to continue to present cases, cases, cases, you can't ask that we resolve them tomorrow,'' she told reporters in Caracas. ``We can't. It's physically impossible.''

To be eligible to run in the November elections, opposition candidates would need the court to rule by the August 12 deadline to register their campaigns. President Hugo Chavez says he supports the blacklist of 260 people, created by the comptroller general, the government's anti-corruption watchdog.

Comptroller Clodosbaldo Russian has accused the people on the list of wrongdoings including misuse of public funds and nepotism while they were working in government or in an elected office. The opposition says that only a judge can take away someone's right to run in an election.

``Delayed justice isn't justice,'' Gerardo Blyde, who is running for mayor of a Caracas borough, said in comments broadcast by Globovision. ``The entire country is waiting for this Venezuelan court to make a decision.''

No matter what the court rules, opposition parties don't plan to boycott this year's elections, as they did in 2004's National Assembly elections, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Walter in Caracas at mwalter4@bloomberg.net; Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 16, 2008 17:48 EDT