After several comings and goings, today it will be submitted to the Plenary of the Congress if the debate on the constitutional reform projects is resumed for an advance of general elections. But everything is nothing more than a feint because at this point, even if the measure is approved, it is already impossible to hold the elections in October or December of this year, as claimed by 70% of Peruvians, according to the latest Ipsos survey.
And it is that just yesterday, missing a day for the closing of the legislature, the bench of Alliance for Progress it adhered to the request of four other blocks to include the issue in the Plenary’s agenda. The act was presented as a gesture of detachment, and with the bloc’s spokesman Alejandro Soto, alleging that nobody asked them to sign, that they never opposed the issue being seen, and blaming Fuerza Popular for having reconsidered that the elections be this year despite the fact that there was a prior agreement for them to take place in April 2024.
But it’s not true. In the Constitution Commission, on February 3, two of its members: Eduardo Salhuana and Lady Camones voted against discussing the Executive’s project to advance elections in this legislature, and “kicked” the issue until the period that Starts on July 27. Camones even defended her position, alleging that she is an “institutionalist” and that if the votes were not obtained, that decision had to be respected.
Yesterday, however, his bloc backed down and allowed, with its adhesion, to put the issue on the agenda, knowing that the deadlines would no longer allow general elections to be held this year. Is it for this reason that the leader of the group César Acuña – after meeting with the president Dina Boluarte – left the Palace laughing?
Continuing with the script, however, the also regional governor of La Libertad insisted that his party supports early elections and even stressed that Parliament has the “responsibility” to support the measure. If he does not do so, he said, he must assume his commitment to support the governability of the country in the remainder of Dina Boluarte’s term.
TO THE VOTE
Legislative sources, meanwhile, explained to Peru21 that after the expansion of the agenda, the president of Congress must submit for consultation the approval of the request, for which a minimum of 66 votes is needed. If that is achieved, the Constitution Commission – chaired by Hernando Guerra García – will be empowered to resume the debate on the more than 12 projects that contemplate the reduction of the presidential and congressional mandate. Thus, eventually it would be possible to have an opinion in the legislature that begins on March 1 and submit it to the first vote in that same period. If it exceeds 87 votes, the ratification in the second vote would take place in the legislature that begins at the end of July. Under these conditions, however, there would hardly be the possibility of holding elections in October or December of this year. Thus, finally, the parliamentarians will have gotten away with it.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
- President Dina Boluarte met yesterday with leaders of the Alliance for Progress, Avanza País, Acción Popular, the Patriotic Party of Peru and Renovación Popular.
- The Prime Minister and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice also participated indistinctly.
