Reform. the congressman Edgar Raymondfrom the Cambio Democrático bench (formerly Together for Peru), introduced bill 3983/2022-CRwhich seeks to modify Article 117 of the Political Constitution to include the crime of corruption in the grounds of criminal origin of accusation against a President of the Republic in office.
Indeed, according to the legislative initiative presented last Friday, January 13, the project establishes the modification of article 117 of the magna carta in order that a head of state can be accused during his term “for being part of a criminal organization, for crimes of corruption, and for crimes against humanity.
In the same vein, they remain Other grounds for accusation against a head of state “for preventing presidential, parliamentary, regional or municipal elections; for dissolving Congress, except in the cases provided for in article 134 of the ConstitutionY for preventing its meeting or operation, or those of the National Election Jury and other bodies of the electoral system”.
Among the reasons for the project, Edgar Raymond Maintains that, currently, the grounds for impeaching a president “have a limiting effect before the commission of serious crimes or constitutional infractions”. Likewise, it is specified that the current constitutional provision “does not take into account the commission of crimes against the public administration or against humanity, which are the ones that produce the greatest irritation and indignation in the citizenry”.
“This generates, among citizens, the perception of an abusive exercise of power and subsequent impunitywhich translate in discredit of the highest dignitary of the nation and the institution of the presidency. This puts democratic institutions in Peru at serious risk,” the document reads.
Presidents must be accused of crimes after inaccuracy of vacancy, points out PL
The bill states that “the political crises that have affected the institution of the presidencyhave found as a mechanism article 113 for the vacancy for “permanent moral incapacity”.
However, he mentions that there “an inaccuracy” in this prerogative, since “it does not solve the underlying problem” and the solution would be for the president “to be accused of committing crimes in the exercise of his duties.”
“Another underlying reason is that citizens recover credibility in their institutions and that the constitutional, legal, and political control mechanisms guarantee that their authorities, in this case the president, will conduct themselves in the public function entrusted by popular mandate with transparency and probity”, he expresses.