The bench of People’s Action presented a bill that proposes to incorporate the bicameral system in the Congress of the Republic, changing its composition, attributions, functions and competences.
It’s about the legislative initiative 1708/2021-CRwhich proposes to modify articles 2 subsection 5, 56, 57, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 87, 90, 94, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 113 , 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 125, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 145, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 178, 191, 194, 200 , 201, 203 and 206 of the Constitution.
Thus, the amendment restore the chambers of deputies and senators. During the parliamentary recess, the latter will work, which will have 30 members taking into account the electoral density.
While, the number of deputies is 130 and it is specified that every department will have at least two. Both are elected for a period of five years through an electoral process organized in accordance with law.
The project states that candidates for the Presidency of the Republic cannot be included in the list of candidates for congress. However, candidates for vice president can simultaneously be candidates for senators or deputies.
“In order to be elected Senator and Deputy, it is required to be Peruvian by birth, to have served thirty-five years to be a Senator and twenty-five years to be a Deputy, in both cases to enjoy the right to vote, not to have been sentenced in the first instance for an intentional crime as an author or accomplice and be suitable for the position”details the initiative.
In the statement of reasons it is stated that the loss of the bicameral nature of the Peruvian Parliament “means leaving it without a counterweight for double legislative reflection” and that although it cannot be avoided that both chambers have difficulty reaching an agreement, “One of them will have to surrender and tradition asks, with few exceptions, that it be the Upper House”.
“Although it could be considered that the Congress of the Republic, through its congressmen, from the enactment of the 1993 Constitution (120 congressmen for a little more than 22 million Peruvians), in its first years it fulfilled a important to give the laws that were needed, due to its agility; At present, it has suffered wear and tear due to its weak representation based on an insufficient number of parliamentarians, that is, 130 parliamentarians for approximately 33 million Peruvians, which means that a single congressman represents more than 250 thousand Peruvians, this does not happen in no country”he underlined.
