JNE: Project that cuts the mandate of the heads of the Jury and the ONPE "violates the autonomy of constitutional bodies"

Through a public statement, the National Jury of Elections (JNE) expressed its strong rejection of the bill presented by the Avanza País congresswoman, Roselli Amuruz, which proposes cutting, for the only time, the mandate of the president of that highest electoral body and of the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE).

In the document, signed by the five members of the JNE Plenary, it is specified that the proposal “without any valid argumentation, intends to violate the autonomy of the constitutional bodies JNE and ONPE, bypassing the process of designation of their holders provided for in our Magna Carta , for a period of 4 years.

In this context, the JNE recalls that its head is chosen by the Plenary Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, while the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes is appointed by the National Board of Justice “after a public contest, as it is established by our constitutional norm”.

“In this sense, the aforementioned proposal interferes in the autonomous decisions of the highest instance of the Judiciary as well as the National Board of Justice,” he stresses.

Likewise, the Jury maintains that “the bodies of the Electoral System provide legitimacy of origin to the elected authorities but not legitimacy of performance (which is borne by each of those elected).”

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According to Amuruz’s proposal, the mandate of the heads of the JNE and the ONPE would be interrupted in April of this year despite the fact that in the case of Jorge Salas Arenas, of the JNE, it officially ends in January 2024, while that of the ONPE chief, Piero Corvetto, was due to do so only in August of that same year.