Seven weeks before the referendum on the 135 articles of the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC), the government and opposition are preparing to enter the final stretch of the campaign.
And unlike what happens in national, internal, departmental elections and even in ballot instances, the vote on March 27 opens an unusual campaign of “unlimited” political advertising: there is no specific deadline to start broadcasting proselytizing propaganda in the media; there are no explicit prohibitions on the president’s participation in advertising spots; and there is no regulation – no longer control – on the financing of campaigns.
The only thing that saves viewers from a long barrage of political ads is the scarcity of resources in each of the parties and the fact that in this instance the Electoral Court does not pay for each vote received.
Legislation
Law 17,045, which regulates electoral advertising, establishes in its article 1 that political parties may only start their electoral advertising thirty days before the elections, and fifteen days before in the case of a ballot.
But since that norm does not make any reference to the referendum, from the Electoral Court they clarify that “there is no limitation”.
“What does apply is the ban in the days before the election. But today you can do electoral advertising, ”he told The Observer Pablo Klappenbach, Minister of the Court representing the Broad Front.
This lack of specific regulation means that, in fact, the parties and their leaders have been authorized to buy advertising space in the media since the referendum was confirmed.
If that has not happened so far, it is for a reason of financial resources and efficiency. According to leaders of various parties consulted by The Observerthe strength of the advertising campaign will be concentrated in the weeks prior to the vote.
The role of Lacalle Pou
One of the issues that has been under discussion since the call for the referendum was confirmed is the power of President Luis Lacalle Pou to participate in the campaign.
Various constitutionalists have remarked that, as it is a challenge to an act of his government, Lacalle Pou is empowered to actively defend the law and even carry out political acts as long as they are clearly separated from the field of partisan proselytism, which is prohibited by law. Constitution.
But what about election advertising? Can the image of Lacalle Pou be used? Can the president actively participate in that publicity or are there impediments like in national elections?
Martín Risso, professor of Constitutional Law at the Catholic University, is blunt: “he is authorized to do any of these things.” Article 77 number 5 of the Constitution establishes that the President of the Republic and the members of the Electoral Court may not, among other things, “intervene in any way in political propaganda of an electoral nature.”
According to Risso, the term “electoral” is limited in the Constitution to elections in which “elected positions” come into play, something that does not happen in a referendum. Therefore, the expert told The Observer that Lacalle Pou has “no impediment to appearing in commercials defending the law, even actively.” What the president must respect, in general terms of the law, is the constitutional inhibition of partisan proselytizing.
“That is what the Constitution says. Then there is what is considered convenient from the political point of view”, Risso clarified.
In the government coalition, and in the National Party in particular, they see the figure of Lacalle Pou as “decisive” in the result of the referendum, considering the high levels of approval that he maintains in public opinion and consider it a “duty” of the president to defend the law that is the flagship of his administration.
