Why hasn’t a new ombudsman been elected yet?: results of a controversial process

The Congress of the Republic plans to begin the election of a new head of the ombudsman’s office on May 9. This will be the third election attempt since the departure of Walter Gutiérrez exactly one year ago, on April 27, 2022.

The schedule for the current electoral process has been approved by the third special parliamentary commission formed for this purpose. The first was formed on February 28, 2022 and was made up of those who were then members of the Council of Spokesmen and was led by Maria del Carmen Alva, President of the Congress at the time.

In addition, it was decided that the election of candidates would be held “in a special manner”; that is, at the direct invitation of the members of the special commission.

commission under magnifying glass

Alva Prieto, as supernumerary president of said special commission, has stated several times that this will be a “flexible” process and has indicated that it will be completed before the end of her term as head of the Legislative Assembly. Even at a meeting on May 24, 2022, he ruled not to have reports from the Comptroller General of the Republic regarding candidates.

“We must speed up this issue, we are going to request all the necessary documents, but (…) the procedure will be different, it will not be the same as the Constitutional Court (CC). It is clear. In addition, we discussed that we are going to elect him to this legislature. Therefore, please, we should be less bureaucratic in the questions that we will ask, ”he said on this occasion.

On May 30, 2022, the commission approved the schedule for the selection of candidates and scheduled the start of plenary elections for June 28 of the same year.

However, the next day, the Union of Ombudsman Staff filed a suit with the amparo in the judiciary to annul the electoral process “for violating the principles of transparency, meritocracy, non-arbitrariness and the right to participate in the political life of the country.

The union questioned the fact that the process did not include a stage at which citizens “may make claims” to candidates or that they can “learn the results of the information provided by the Comptroller of the Republic”. Similarly, he questioned that Maria del Carmen Alva was acting as the tenth member of the special commission, despite the fact that the Organic Law of the Office of the Ombudsman (LODP) establishes a maximum of 9 members.

On May 8, 2022, the Third Specialized Constitutional Court took the said preventive measure and temporarily suspended the election procedure. In the ruling, Judge John Paredes Salas argued that the timetable did not include the strike phase, nor did it guarantee the “principles of publicity and transparency” in the process.

“No stage has been recognized in which the public is allowed to exercise control over the suitability of candidates, nor has any stage or stages been recognized which would permit the direct and widespread publication of information obtained from institutions that keep the information up to date for this purpose, for example, received from the Comptroller General of the Republic, the judiciary, the State Ministry and others,” the document says.

As can be expected, the decision of the judiciary was not approved by Parliament. Maria del Carmen Alva questioned the “legitimacy” of the union in order to “stop the procedure appropriate to Congress” and announced that “measures” would be taken.

However, on June 16, the Plenum decided to create a new special commission to select candidates for the post of head of the ombudsman’s office. For his part, heThe Council of Spokesmen again agreed that the ad hoc selection method would be used.

On June 20, a new commission consisting of 9 people was created. Eight days later, the timetable for the process was approved, which included the stage of presenting flaws “related to the interrogation of non-compliance with any of the three requirements required by Article 2” LORP, that is, relating to “was thirty-five years old, was a lawyer and had a well-known reputation for honesty and independence person.”

However, on August 8, 2022, the judiciary decided to extend the preventive measure against the new special commission at the request of the ombudsmen’s trade union.