Senators and deputies opened the first ordinary legislature of this year last Monday, with an agenda full of important projects and the expectation that the Executive will swell it with other important ones, but it looks like it will be unproductive because our honorable congressmen have the urge to another agenda for them equally or more necessary, such as political-electoral.
This legislature, scheduled to end in the last week of July, coincides with key months and deadlines in the election calendar, which will focus their attention because the political and even personal future of the vast majority depends on it.
The presidents of the Senate and the Lower House announced their Prioritized Legislative Agenda, with the projects that together with the Government they consider most urgent, but at this juncture doubts are growing because if in normal times its performance leaves something to be desired, now it could be enhanced .
And we say this because the country is practically in an open electoral campaign out of time at all levels, which should begin to take shape on June 2, when by law the parties will reserve 20% of the candidacies .
It will be necessary to imagine the pressure of the majority of the current congressmen not to be left out of the balloon and to be ready to deploy their forces because the internal pre-campaign for the primaries will start on July 2.
August 17 is the deadline to register candidacies, so it sounds logical to conclude that the current legislature would be affected by this reality.
But since the last thing that is lost is hope, it will be necessary to take Eduardo Estrella and Alfredo Pacheco at their word, who announced their priorities. Pacheco cited the Procurement and Hiring Law, the Intelligence Directorate project, the Water Code, the Penal Code; y Estrella will also focus on the Penal Code, the Civil Aviation Promotion and Competitiveness Law; that of Public Function, the Civil Code, Public Procurement and the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction.
Let’s hope that both presidents will motivate the commissions that have some of these pieces in their possession to expedite their study and approval.
Perhaps reality belies what is expected: that the political-electoral will take over the legislature because the congressmen will be campaigning and have “souls to save”, in a scenario where there are always many devils and little holy water.
