Early elections: Pushing for Constituent Assembly referendum thwarts congressional consensus

Stagnation. parliamentary assemblies right and left still disagree to decide the course of the elections for 2023, despite the fact that in three days A month has passed since the resumption of protests against the government of Dina Boluarte and Congress.

The plenary session of the Congress since last Friday, January 27, has been interrupted up to three times. The debate on the postponement of the elections was supposed to resume yesterday, Tuesday, but the board of directors announced that this Wednesday, starting at 11:00, the initiative of the chairman of the Constitutional Commission, Hernando Guerra Garcia.

It was Fujimorista Guerra García who demanded an extension in order to develop a new replacement text by consensus and thus find a way out of the current political crisis, given that most of the protesters are demanding the departure of the executive branch. and Legislative.

Project constitutional reform For new elections its approval requires a minimum of 87 votes in that legislature, which has been extended to 10 February. In order to ratify a proposal, the same number of votes must be obtained in the next legislature.

Yesterday ungrouped congressman Carlos Anderson revealed in RPP News that one of the proposals that generates the most consensus in parliament is an initiative general electionthat will take place this year complement each other. In other words, the term of the next President of the Republic and the new Congress will expire in July 2026.

The MP, outside the group, explained that the proposal establishes that the general election will take place in December 2023, with a runoff in February 2024.

Guido Bellido pushes for a referendum on the Constituent Assembly

Although the proposal in question is liked by most of the benches, left-wing parliamentary groups such as Perú Libre or Perú Bicentenario insist that the advancement of the elections be accompanied by a referendum for popular consultation, which is its position. for installation constituent Assemblywho will be responsible for drafting a new constitution to replace the Magna Carta drawn up during the reign of detained former President Alberto Fujimori.

This position was demonstrated today by former Prime Minister and current Congressman of Peru, Bicentenario Guido Bellido, who said that if the referendum is not included, the social crisis will continue.

Lawmaker Bellido indicated that both he and his left-wing colleagues entered Congress under the slogan of change Magna Carta and that, despite the convulsive social panorama that the country is going through, “we are not going to refuse the offer that we had from the very beginning.”

“We don’t pull out – like a magician from under a rabbit hat – to say: “Turn it on.” From the first moment we raised the question [Asamblea Constituyente]”, stated in News extension.

“What we will not allow is that the proposal that is from this part be excluded and not heard, almost caricatured,” he added.

Beautiful Ugarte, who was the first cabinet minister of the Pedro Castillo government, denied that the stance taken by the leftist groups means a voting condition to ensure that elections take place this year today.

“We have an approach. And when there is consensus, you do not cancel the aspiration or proposal of one side, but put the proposal of both in the center,” he said.

On January 18, Edgar Tello of the Arbitration Bloc stated that if the referendum on the Constituent Assembly was not included, it would be equivalent to “turning your back on the street”, referring to a group of protesters demanding a new Magna. Map.

“The street asks for a consultation on the referendum to the Constituent Assembly, and I think that not taking into account early elections and adding this consultation would not be a search for a way out of the crisis. It’s not just about pushing the date, making changes and leaving, no,” he said.

At that time Congressman Avanza País, Diego Bazan, warned that this stance jeopardizes a second vote to ensure that elections are postponed to April 2024 as originally planned; however, social circumstances forced the executive branch itself to ask Congress to approve a general election for that year.

APP asks not to condition the vote and approve early elections this year

Listening to position Guido Bellido, Alliance for Progress (APP) bench spokesman Alejandro Soto stressed that a significant part of the population is demanding that “they all go.” And, in line with this popular assertion, the apistist legislator urged his colleagues on the left not to impose conditions on the vote and to approve early elections once and for all.

Soto said that while he would like some political and electoral reforms to take place, the time frame “doesn’t allow for more.”

“The NP is a centrist party that does not set any conditions for itself to advance the electoral process. We have said from the very beginning that the Congress has the right to cut the mandate of the President, the Congress and the parliamentarians of the Andes. While this is our function, but do not set conditions.

For an APP representative, it is in line with the National Electoral Jury (JNE) to set election schedule dates, not Congresswhose proposal is based on holding first round in December 2023 and a second one in February 2024.

“People say: “Vayance todos”. Let’s not set conditions, I already told them,” he said.

Somos Peru spokesman asks to abandon ‘extreme positions’ for early elections

In turn, the representative of the Somos Perú bench, José Geri, stressed that all bencheson behalf of their constituents and in accordance with the situation in the country, they must “give way to extreme positions” in order to reach a consensus that will allow them to get the 87 votes needed for this year’s elections.

“We have to be prudent right now. I believe that no position wins because the country loses, and the lives we mourn, and the people who stop working, and the companies that stop production. I would urge my colleagues that we should have intermediate positions, ”he said. Jerry V News extension.

With regard to constitutional reforms and the Constituent Assembly, Congressman Somoz of Peru He said that the new Congress would be responsible for holding debates on both issues.

Mentioning that by-election are part of the central point of the Congress, Jerry asked his colleagues on the left for pushing for a Constituent Assembly and “violating the minimum consensus that we achieve.”

At the end of the note and less than an hour before the debate at the plenary session of the Congress, the chairman of the Constitutional Commission Hernando Guerra Garciaconfirmed that consensus on the draft early elections had not yet been reached.