Deputies from all the benches (except for the Panameñista party) took advantage of a project to reform the Electoral Code on certain administrative powers of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) to introduce an article that modifies the mandate revocation procedure.
This is Bill 776, presented by the TE to the Assembly on March 9. The project was approved this Tuesday, March 15, with an article that was not in the original text and that was introduced by the members of the Government, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Commission.
The recently created article 438-A says the following: “The decisions that are approved by the majority of the deputies of the parliamentary faction to which they belong, may not be used by the political parties as grounds for revoking their mandate, or expulsion of the deputies, registered or not in the political party for which they were nominated”.
This modification would favor a group of 15 deputies from the CD caucus -led by Yanibel Ábrego-, who currently maintain an internal process of recalling their mandate.
The members of the Government Commission who voted in favor of the new article 438-A are the PRD members Víctor Castillo (president of the commission), Sara Montenegro (substitute for Crispiano Adames), Rupilio Ábrego (substitute for Benicio Robinson) and Roberto Ábrego; Corina Cano, from Molirena; Marylín Vallarino and Hernán Delgado, from CD, and the independent Juan Diego Vásquez. The Panamanian Luis Ernesto Carles saved the vote.
Juan Diego Vásquez justified his vote in favor of the proposal.
“This recall issue is the power that someone has to remove a deputy from the Assembly. Today, that power is controlled by political parties. I am of the faithful criterion that this should be 100% in the power of the citizens and right there was the discussion that took place today… We are of the firm position that they must always be a revocation of the mandate run by the citizens,” he said.
Currently, article 488 of the Electoral Code establishes that the political party to which the seat has been awarded may revoke the mandate of the principal or alternate deputy who has applied, registered or not in the party, in the following cases:
1. For serious violation of the statutes and the ideological, political or programmatic platform of the party. The grounds for revocation must be described in the party’s statutes and have been approved by the Electoral Tribunal prior to the date of the application.
2. By resignation from the party.
3. For having been convicted of an intentional crime, through an enforceable sentence, with a custodial sentence of five years or more.
The Electoral Court, proponent of project 776, reported that it is unable to issue an opinion on the new article 438-A. “At the moment there is a controversy on this issue, within a political party, which may end in an appeal before the Plenary of the Electoral Court,” he said in a statement.
