Congress has less than four months to pass reforms (La República [Spanish] - 12/23/2022)

Congress has less than four months to pass reforms (Spanish)

Looking ahead to 2024. The Constitution Commission begins today the deliberation of four proposals: election of the comptroller, accusing the president in his mandate, congressional elections in the second round and impediments to run. Bicamerality, re-election and the constituent assembly remain to be debated.

Diego Quispe

A bad habit of the last two congresses was to approve transitional provisions to extend the deadline for modifying the electoral rules, even when the electoral process is already convened and underway.

The electoral law stipulates that electoral rules cannot be changed within one year of the election. For now, no congressman has introduced any bill to lengthen the times.

Congress has, for the moment, less than four months to approve the reforms that will govern the eventual electoral process of 2024.

The commission charged with discussing these rules is the Constitution Commission. Its president, Popular Force congressman Nano Guerra, assured La República that the reforms to be applied in the 2024 electoral process will only be discussed until April of next year.

"The Constitutional Court (TC) has indicated that no more legislatures can be made than those indicated in the Constitution. The electoral reforms will only take place in April. Policies and otherwise, if there is more time," Guerra said.

Depends on Constitution

In the last legislature, the Constitution Commission, when it was chaired by the excastañedista and today fujimorista Patricia Juárez, presented an opinion to postpone the primary elections in the regional and municipal elections of 2022. This proposal was rejected by the plenary. However, the National Jury of Elections (JNE), because Congress had postponed the time of electoral rules too much, reported that it was technically not feasible to carry out the PASO (primary, open, simultaneous and mandatory).

And so they were postponed.

This newspaper asked Guerra if this time the Constitution Commission will adopt the position of his predecessor and he replied: "It is not for or against. We have to see if there is time. Electoral management bodies have been vague and general. They are the ones who must say if they can. To me, the PASO seem impractical, generate enormous expense and there is no adequate background to compare in the region (Argentina's model is not good). But that's my personal opinion."

The War Commission will meet today. Its agenda includes four proposals to be discussed.

The first is an initiative of Popular Force Congressman Jorge Morante, who proposes that the comptroller be elected with the votes of 2/3 of his colleagues. This excludes the Executive.

The second is authored by Juan Burgos, of Avanza País, and proposes that the president can be investigated and accused during his term of office for criminal organization, incompatible negotiation, influence peddling, among others. Currently, the Constitution only allows the president to be accused of these crimes: treason, impeding the functioning of Congress and electoral bodies and intervening in electoral bodies.

The third is an initiative of Edward Málaga, who provides that the second round is with the three candidates with the highest vote in the first and that at this stage the congressional elections will also be held.

The fourth is from Roberto Chiabra, who proposes that people sentenced in the first instance for crimes of organized crime and corruption of officials be prevented from applying. The bill also states that political parties that shelter the candidate and do not report this background run the risk of having their registration in the Registry of Political Organizations (ROP) suspended.

Of these four proposed norms, two are electoral reforms, that of Malaga and Chiabra. The first only needs an ordinary law and the second an amendment to the Constitution.

But it is not only these demands that are pending deliberation.

In the previous semester, the parties of Fuerza Popular, Avanza País, Renovación Popular and Perú Libre had promoted the return to bicameralism and congressional reelection. This did not prosper because it did not reach 87 votes in favor. The then head of the Constitution Commission, Patricia Juárez, to prevent this law is submitted to a referendum, filed an appeal for reconsideration to vote on the project again.

To date, this request has not been discussed.

Bicamera Congress 

The approval of the return to bicameralism in Congress and the re-election of its members would change the rules of the game. A Congress with two chambers will mean that the composition of this institution changes and that some parliamentarians evaluate running for re-election.

As it is a constitutional reform, it needs 87 votes in favor in two plenary sessions of different legislatures. The current one expires on January 31 and the new one possibly begins in February. They are against time.

But not only this request is under discussion.

Constituent Assembly

Since the protests broke out against the government of the vice president of Pedro Castillo Dina Boluarte, the leftist blocs – Free Peru, Democratic Peru and Democratic Change – proposed a series of initiatives to call a referendum for a constituent assembly in parallel to the general elections.

Yesterday, Democratic Change parliamentarian Sigrid Bazán presented a bill to convene a popular consultation in 60 days that allows citizens to decide whether or not they want a constituent assembly.

"There is a political majority that does not want fundamental changes, which has taken us from crisis to crisis. That is why I have presented PL 3828 that proposes the call for a referendum in which citizens can decide if we open the way to real change through a constituent assembly. The debate is not exhausted, it continues!" tweeted Sigrid Bazan early.

This proposal also needs 87 votes, minimum, and at the moment the left does not have them.

Political will lacking

The debate has already begun and there are no excuses, as Iván Lanegra, secretary of the Civil Association Transparencia, stressed for Congress not to approve and not apply the appropriate reforms – such as primaries and the elimination of preferential voting – because an argument of the benches to support that they all leave in 2024 was that that time would allow them to make adjustments to the legislature and have a better electoral process.

The president of the Congress, José Williams, has expressed his opinion in that sense. "The time that will be achieved for the National Jury of Elections, the Executive and the Legislative to develop the project of the elections is enough because it is within the period. You can even do the primary elections and everything and the deadlines are going to be given", he stressed.

The Minister of Justice, José Tello, is also in that line. Yesterday he met with political scientist Fernando Tuesta to ratify the commitment to reforms. Tuesta, as is known, was chairman of the High-Level Commission for Political Reform.

The ball is back in Parliament's court. It depends again on this institution that Peruvians have a quality electoral process.