The President of the Senate and a member of the Socialist Party (PS), Álvaro Elizalde, is the senator with whom the candidate for National Prosecutor, Ángel Valencia, has the most open conflicts of interest. This is because beyond the fact that they are friends and ex-university classmates during the dictatorship, both have a relationship of compadres after reciprocally sponsoring their children. It is for this reason that Elizalde has been one of the parliamentarians of the Upper House most required to make known the destiny of his suffrage.
In contact with The counter, Elizalde said that she had fully decided how she was going to vote but that she would only make it public at the time of her vote in the Chamber. In a vote as close as it is presumed, each vote is important, given the high quorum required to ratify, which in this case is equivalent to 33 votes.
Even though the degree of friendship and closeness of Valencia with the president of the Senate could constitute an ethical dilemma, sources close to Elizalde maintained that senator PS is not affected by any cause of disability, since they are not related by blood.
Now, both the disqualification, the abstention or the blank vote do not alter the quorum, so any of the three modalities adds to the rejection of having fewer favorable votes available. The only possibility to affect the quorum is constitutional permission.
Finally, Senator Elizalde decided to abstain from the vote. “I have made the decision to abstain. Not disqualify myself. I cannot go against the law. I am not going to do anything that involves questioning the work of the Senate. I do not want the role of the Senate to be questioned,” he justified.
It is worth mentioning that, after more than 7 hours of session -which included the presentation of the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá-, the Constitution Commission of the Senate unanimously approved the nomination of the lawyer Ángel Valencia to occupy the position of National Prosecutor, after being proposed by President Gabriel Boric after two failures, those of José Morales and Marta Herrera.
The five members of the commission, Alfonso De Urresti (PS), Pedro Araya (IND), Matías Walker (Democrat), Rodrigo Galilea (RN) and Luz Ebensperger (UDI), voted in favor of Valencia, for what happened with the report favorable to the Senate Chamber.
Subsequently, with 40 votes in favor, 6 abstentions and 3 against, the government candidate, Ángel Valencia, was elected as the new National Prosecutor.
