A bill establishes the automatic registration in the Permanent Civic Registry of Paraguayans residing abroad to vote in general or municipal elections. The proposal already has half sanction of the Chamber of Senators and passed to the Deputies for study.
The liberal deputy Jorge Ávalos Mariño explained that despite having the approval in the Lower House, the law may only be applied to the elections after those of 2023 because the registration process in the Electoral Justice was closed at the end of May.
«In more than one session the project was on the agenda to be dealt with, but in the Chamber of Deputies they always ran out of quorum before reaching the corresponding item. It should be clarified that this project already has half a sanction and in a week at the latest it will probably have the fictitious sanction if it is not dealt with in Deputies, “said the parliamentarian, which means that the bill will be approved if it does not reach be discussed in the lower house.
From his point of view, the proposal will be dealt with, but he affirmed that he cannot speak about the fate of the Lower House because the project has had some resistance. “Colleagues from the ruling party have just postponed it. Making a guess, I think that this is because Paraguayans residing abroad are mostly people who sympathize with the opposition », he pointed out.
Likewise, he pointed out that in the legislation commission there was consensus to accompany the project because it is a necessary tool so that Paraguayans residing abroad can access national elections without many procedures, in the same way in which citizens of the country do so. country.
EXPERIENCES
For her part, Cristina Campuzano, a Paraguayan resident in Spain, commented that they form a working group with different compatriots who live abroad to support the approval of the bill and finally allow fellow citizens the possibility of exercising their right to vote. , which also constitutes a constitutional guarantee.
«Whoever leaves Paraguay knows nothing about the times of the TSJE. It is not reported that when you leave Paraguay and plan to reside abroad, you have to update your data in the TSJE and you must re-register in the national register,” Campuzano argued, hinting at the impossibilities that compatriots have and how they live even under total disinterest of the authorities themselves.
According to the compatriot, with these simple data it can be clearly seen that the national register for the general elections is not up to date. With this, it could be that it throws unrealistic results in each election, since the registered ones appear but they no longer live in the country.
“Automatic registration is very necessary first to produce real results in each election and possibly the percentage of those who did not vote will decrease and the count will become genuine. The most important thing is that all Paraguayans have the right to vote,” he said.
He said that for this, updated information must be had on all Paraguayans abroad through identifications and/or the foreign ministry through consulates and embassies with lists of passport renewals and ID renewals in the case of countries that make up the Mercosur. In the first case, the lists of registered citizens could be drawn up via an international agreement (in the case of Spain) in the town halls; and with those registered and registered (Argentina case).
“Achieving automatic registration will be a citizen achievement with golden letters because once and for all we will be voting with equal rights as well as our remittances will have justice. Our dear and beloved Republic of Paraguay wins », he stressed.
