JNE: Jorge Salas maintains that magistrates that make up the electoral body do not have "political ties"

The head honcho of the JNE, Jorge Salas Arenas, swore in last Wednesday, January 1, the new representative of the Special Electoral Jury (JEE) of Lima, superior judge María de los Ángeles Álvarez Camacho. Immediately afterwards, Álvarez Camacho proceeded to do the same with the superior prosecutor Luis Landa Burgos, chosen by the Board of Superior Prosecutors of the Fiscal District of Lima, and the citizen Zayda Cerna Cipiran, appointed by public lottery carried out by the JNE. Both will integrate the JEE of Lima. In the middle of this ceremony, Salas Arenas expressed his concern about the actions that Congress intends to take to carry out a political preliminary trial of the new magistrates.

Faced with this situation, Jorge Salas Arenas assured that the terms “political trial” and “political trial” are being confused, supervisory measures that in 2003 the Constitutional Court recommended applying to the members of the JNE.

However, according to Salas Arenas, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) mentioned in 2013 that this scenario contravened “international standards” by subjecting judges to these political norms in Parliament.

In other words, it would be contrary to the independence and impartiality enjoyed by the actors of this autonomous body, in accordance with international law. In addition, Salas Arenas emphasized that the members elected, both in the JNE and in the JEE, “are career judges, completely removed from political ties.”

“This is something that all lawyers should know and, of course, those who are members of the high constitutional courts,” said the head of the JNE.