Last Tuesday, the plenary session of the Congress approved the constitutional reform that proposes the advancement of general elections to April 2024 and the reduction of the mandates of the Executive and the Legislative.
With 93 votes in favour, 30 against and one abstention, the Parliament achieved the necessary majority to approve the opinion, although it still must be ratified in the next legislature that begins in February 2023.
It is worth remembering that the Constitution Commission presented an opinion proposing the new elections for December 2023, whose authors were congresswomen Digna Calle and Susel Paredes. However, this proposal did not reach consensus in the plenary session on December 16.
For the last plenary session, Hernando Guerra García, president of the Constitution Commission, He presented a substitute text that established the advancement of elections to April 2024, as was the Executive’s proposal. Finally, with this modification, the opinion of said working group was approved.
What political reforms will the Constitution Commission evaluate?
As is known, the majority of the opposition benches agree that, before calling the 2024 elections, a reforms political and electoral In this sense, the reforms that have the most consensus in these parliamentary groups are the return of bicamerality and the immediate re-election of congressmen.
Tomorrow Friday, at 9 am, the Constitution Commission will hold its 13th extraordinary session in which they are scheduled to evaluate three bills that propose reforms of this type: those of non-grouped congressmen Robert Chiabra y Edward Málaga; and that of the congressman Juan Burgos of Advance Country.
Impediments to hold public office
At that session, Congressman Robert Chiabra will support the “Constitutional Reform Law that strengthens the Nation’s Democratic stability.” The project seeks to “specify and/or modify articles that allow the transparent and efficient exercise of the functions in the structure of the State” subject to people’s choice.
These reforms indicate that “they cannot participate directly or indirectly, nor can they finance political organizations” those who “have guilty verdict issued in the first instance as perpetrators or accomplices for the commission of intentional crimes”.
Likewise, “those convicted with final and enforceable judgment for the commission of crimes of organized crime, corruption of officials, illicit enrichment, money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism, family violence, against sexual freedom, recognition of paternity and alimony, nor the authors, co-authors, or accomplices of crimes against humanityof kidnapping, of qualified homicide and/or murder, even when the sentence has been served or remitted in whole or in part”.
The project indicates that the political parties will be “responsible” for “separating” those who incur in these prohibitions, “under penalty of suspension of the electoral registry” by the National Elections Jury (JNE). In addition, the text indicates the same restrictions for those officials who must be appointed to positions of trust.
Another important reform proposed by Congressman Chiabra is that the congressmen they may not be appointed as ministers of state.
“The mandate of the congressman is incompatible with the exercise of any other public function, except that of representatively integrating extraordinary commissions of an international nature, for which the prior appointment and authorization of the Congress of the republic“, says the proposal.
In addition, the project establishes that the mandate of the congressmen “can be waived”.
“The resignation (…) will be irrevocable and can only be presented between the first and fourth year of the legislative period. The Chief Officer communicates it, within 24 hours, to the Permanent Commission and it is approved by the Plenary session of the Congress of the Republic (…) Once the resignation is accepted, in that same act and immediately the accessory Congressman, who must be sworn in within the following 48 hours”, indicates the project.
Synchronization of parliamentary elections and presidential second round
This Friday, Congressman Edward Málaga will also support, before the Constitution Commission, the bill “that synchronizes the parliamentary elections with the presidential second round of three candidacies.” This initiative modifies two articles of the Organic Law of Elections.
“With a second round of three candidacies The aim is to restore the public’s confidence in the democratic system, which has been disappointed in recent decades by having to place the future of the country between two options that do not generate consensus and that, rather, are substantially opposed,” says the project on its foundation.
This legislative initiative indicates that if any presidential candidate did not reach more than half of the valid votes, “a second choice on the first Sunday in June, among the three candidates who obtained the highest vote”
“Consisting of 3 candidacies, this regulatory reform ensures that the second round not only contemplates two candidates who may reflect radical political positions or opposed to each other, but also makes it possible for a third option to rise that can generate greater consensus,” says the document.
Likewise, the project indicates that the elections for congressmen are held on the first Sunday of June, that is, together with a possible Second round with 3 presidential candidates.
“This norm builds a bridge between the political class and the citizens, since it will be the electorate that will decide, within the framework of a second round, if it grants greater power to the Executive Power through the vote of official congressmen or if it grants the confidence to the opposition groups that will exercise political control and supervision of government acts”, indicates the project of the congressman Málaga.
Modification of article 117 of the Constitution
The third bill referred to political reforms which will be supported by Constitution Commission is the one of Congressman Juan Burgos that proposes the modification of article 117 of the Magna Carta “with the purpose of strengthening the political regime”.
In this way, it is proposed that the president of the republic could be “investigated and charged during his term for the commission of the crimes of treason, terrorism, violation of sexual freedom, femicide, criminal organization, own passive bribery, improper passive bribery (…), incompatible negotiation or improper use of office, trafficking of influence, or illicit enrichment”.
It also points out that the head of state can be “accused for the commission of constitutional infractions”.
Among these violations, in addition to those already established in the Constitution, it adds: “choosing ministers to produce a political crisis, interfering in the activities of the Judiciary, the Public Ministry or the Constitutional Court, carrying out serious violations of international treaties (…), issue emergency decrees on tax matters (…), order the entry of the armed forces and the PNP into Congress without the authorization of the president of Parliament (…), and decree a state of emergency or state of site for an indeterminate term or outside the term established by the Constitution”.
It should be noted that the political and electoral reforms that the Constitution Commission dictate, they must be elevated to the Plenary Session of Congress for its approval. Said reforms – according to the electoral law attorney, Roy Mendoza – may be approved up to one year before the elections, that is, until April 2023if the project is ratified in the next legislature that begins in February of next year.
Given this situation, the Plenary of the Congress has little more than two months to approve reforms that must be complied with by the political parties that participate in the rallies scheduled for April 2024, which must be convened in July of next year.