January could be a key month for reforms to improve or worsen the electoral rules for 2024. A sector of Congress opted for the second option: the Avanza País bench presented a project with which they seek to expeditiously remove the heads of the Jury from their positions National Elections Office (JNE) and the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE).
The initiative was formally presented yesterday and is authored by Rosselli Amuruz. But the document is also signed, in support, by Adriana Tudela, Norma Yarrow, María Córdova Lobatón (Lambayeque), Patricia Chirinos (Callao) and Diego Bazán (La Libertad).
The author Rosselli Amuruz, who in November 2021 presented a bill with plagiarized pages, on this occasion develops a poor argument in her proposal.
The legislator proposes a constitutional reform to cut the mandate of the heads of the JNE and the ONPE to the month of April of this year.
In the concise three-page explanatory statement, he only mentions, in general terms, that the measure would be adopted only once, in order to “build confidence in the country.”
At another extreme, Amuruz maintains that “the citizens of the country will once again go to the ballot box to elect their new authorities in the Executive Power and Legislative Power (…), in such a way that this cut must be extended to the JNE and ONPE, who do not constitute an island in the process”.
The Plenary of the JNE issued a statement last night, warning that the project violates the autonomy of the electoral constitutional bodies.
coordinated lunge
Rosselli Amuruz’s project is not an isolated act. On December 20, 2021, legislator Jorge Montoya, spokesman for the Popular Renovation bench, presented a brief text to the Constitution Commission, also tacitly proposing the departure of Jorge Salas (JNE) and Piero Corvetto (ONPE).
It did so in the context of the approval in the first vote of the reform on the advancement of the elections. His proposal also went against the Reniec leadership, to cut the mandate.
Montoya chaired a commission set up to investigate the alleged fraud in the 2021 elections. The group generated a waste of more than 200,000 soles and in the end they did not present any evidence of possible anomalous acts.
Last Tuesday, the Constitution Commission had its first session in the year, to analyze possible political reforms. One of the guests by Hernando Guerra (Popular Force) was the lawyer Víctor García Toma, who also proposed a reform to cut the mandate in the JNE and ONPE.
Re-election
On the other hand, from the Popular Renovation store, yesterday they processed a new reform proposal in electoral matters, in this case to reinstate the immediate re-election of congressmen.
The project is authored by legislator Alejandro Muñante. This is a very specific initiative, since it can modify article 90 of the Constitution to allow immediate re-election only once.
And it is that re-election seems to be a priority for congressmen. A similar project was presented by Adriana Tudela on December 29, who also suggests that the congressional mandate be only for a period of two and a half years.
Attack against the Ombudsman
Also yesterday, legislator Alejandro Muñante (Popular Renovation) presented another constitutional reform project with the purpose of reducing the votes for the election of the defender.
Currently, Congress must elect the Ombudsman with 87 votes, which implies generating a broad consensus. But Muñante proposes to reduce the fence, so that the election is only with 78 votes.
The Popular Renovation proposal arose after two unsuccessful processes for the election of the defender. On the one hand, because María Alva presided over a commission without legal support. Then, there was a second process without guarantees of meritocracy and in the end none of the invited candidates achieved 87 votes.
reform project
Avanza País proposes to cut the mandate of heads of the JNE and the ONPE to the month of April of this year.
The key
Full. Congress is in session today and the agenda contemplates a project so that the censured ministers cannot be appointed in a new portfolio. An isolated reform idea that would nullify confidence after the presentation of a cabinet is also pending a vote.
