The two slates made up of six candidates for ministers of the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) are already in the hands of the Senate: Emilio Camacho (Guasu Front), César Rossel (PLRA) and Édgar Urbieta (independent), Myriam Cristaldo (charged with answering to the ANR), Jorge Bogarín González (independent) and Gustavo López Benítez (introduced in a questionable manner at the last moment).
It has not yet been defined when the members of the Upper House will select the next TSJE ministers, who will have to occupy the two vacant positions that were generated after the retirement of María Elena Wapenka and Alberto Ramírez Zambonini.
The candidate Emilio Camacho, representative of the Guasú Front, commented that in case of becoming one of the ministers of the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) he will dedicate himself to the task of “ensuring” that the next general elections of 2023 are “free, egalitarian, competitive and pluralistic”.
“In addition to developing more structural issues such as the need for an electoral procedure code, the current law on financing political parties must also be systematized. A priority project would be to write a single law. Currently, there are four regulations that directly relate to the issue. A clear law is needed, one that does not lend itself to persecution or manipulation of people who seek to harm the functioning of democracy”, he explained.
This new regulation regarding the political financing of parties and movements must “be clear, concrete and transparent,” emphasized Camacho.
LISTS
UNLOCKED
In general terms, the candidate for minister of the TSJE assured that although returning to the closed-list system would represent “a step backwards” in electoral matters, he stated that a way should be found to guarantee proportional representation.
“In Paraguay, the D’Hont system was adopted, which is questioned in the sense that, due to distribution, many times it ends up harming minority forces. These are things that could be adjusted”; he highlighted him.
Likewise, Camacho pointed out that the loss of investiture of parliamentarians should be the responsibility of each chamber, in the same way that it is established in the National Constitution. This should not be a task of the TSJE.
“What corresponds is a peer review. This must be left in each Chamber. Obviously, it would be necessary to regulate and establish the right to self-defense, to present counter-evidence, but I consider that this figure corresponds entirely to the legislative sphere”, he pointed out.
TERNAS ARE LEGAL
The representative of the Guasú Front pointed out that the six candidates that make up the lists meet “all the legal requirements.”
“But, we must not forget that in this matter of high political content, legitimacy is also gained by hand, not by form. I think they are all people capable of guaranteeing that right. We have to see how they develop in practice”, he stressed.
Both shortlists are now in the Chamber of Senators waiting for their members to define themselves.
“You submit to the pre-existing rules of the game, you may like it or not, and that’s fine. We all knew what we were submitting to, who was playing, therefore I made it a rule not to talk about the judges, both from the Judicial Council and from the Senate. Once this is finished, we could evaluate, but they are the rules established in the Constitution, in the regulations. No one can complain about that,” he concluded.
