Constitutional reform bill ‘not a priority’ of executive branch ‘at present’, says justice minister

Minister of Justice, Jose Tello, in dialogue with RPP Newsspoke in detail about the General Elections Bill that the Executive introduced yesterday, Wednesday, before Congress Republic.

Recall that last Sunday in a message to the nation, President Dina Boluarte indicated that in the event that parliament does not reach a consensus on postponing the elections to this year, the government will submit two bills: one to postpone the elections to 2023, and the other with a proposal complete reform of the constitution this should be carried out from the next congress.

“Moving forward with the elections is a priority”

For this reason, the owner Ministry of Justice (Minyus) indicated that the “priority” of the executive branch is to advance the elections and that the submitted draft stipulates that the elections will be held next October and that the newly elected authorities will take office in January 2024.

“This project closes the entire electoral process in 2023 (…) The project proposes a term of office for July 28, 2028, for which we are talking about a period of 4 and a half years (…) We must also take into account that we see that the elections will take place on October 8 this year with the possibility of a second round between November and December. What will the new authorities reckon with from January 1, 2024, ”he explained.

However, with regard to the second bill announced by the Head of State, the Minister of Justice indicated that the executive branch had not submitted it because they “target” on the eve of the elections.

“This bill has not been introduced. This is a topic that has not yet been discussed. This is an item that has been considered opportunitybecause it hasn’t been introduced yet Congress for it to be discussed. The agenda is now focused on early general elections,” he said.

Likewise the minister tello He pointed out that this topic “should not be included” in the political agenda yet.

“The other point of this constitutional reform is a question that is actually shouldn’t even be on the agenda because we still have to focus on the first one, which is to advance the elections (…) We support the president (…), but the relevance is not given at the moment, because we are focusing, as necessary, on the promotion of the elections” , he noted.

“The President made a statement on Sunday, both issues were the subject of analysis in the Council of Ministers, we fully support the President, but we have chosen focus on the issue of early elections,” he added.

“Congress knew we were going to present a draft to advance the election”

On the other hand, when asked whether the electoral promotion project already submitted to Congress was the subject of conversations with the benches, the Minister of Justice indicated that Parliament already knows that the said legislative initiative will be submitted by the government.

“The president’s position was clear: if no consensus was reached, we had to submit this project, and we are doing this in accordance with what she indicated. The judicial chambers knew that we had such an intention. , apparently, Congress I knew,” he said.

Thus, the minister indicated that there was no preliminary dialogue with the parliamentary benches about its content.

“As for the content of the project and the proposal, it has just been presented and should be evaluated Congress according to their ability, they will allow. We hope that this is not something that is being postponed, but quite the contrary, that this is an urgent matter,” he said.

“Congress needs to see how it prepares its agenda (…), but we expect this issue to be resolved (…) with due urgency, as a matter of priority,” he added.

In turn, Minister Tello ruled out the intention of President Boluarte to retire.

“We are strong and firm in this position of the president,” he said on this occasion.