The demonstrations that added hundreds of thousands of voices on November 13 sent the electoral constitutional reform to the gallows in the terms proposed by the Executive Power.
Beyond political affiliations or phobias, it is essential to ask ourselves: what should an electoral reform be based on? What is the ultimate goal that it should seek? At what point is a profound reform relevant? And, finally, the President’s initiative, does the foundational pillars that today support the electoral system disappear or not?
An electoral reform seeks above all greater democratic openness, greater representation and participation of the minorities (those that eventually aspire to stop being so via suffrage in the context of a free, impartial, legal and transparent election system) and, of course, in generating and maintaining conditions of equality in the competition.
Although by definition there is no ideal moment to proceed with a legal reform in general and, specifically, in electoral matters, a reform is bound to take place when there is a need to carry it out, when reality has exceeded the norm, when what prevails as current law becomes a dead letter or has stopped working or providing guarantees and protecting the rights that originally gave rise to it; secondly, particularly relevant in the electoral issue, ideally there should be a diagnosis agreed of the situation that then makes the reform pertinent, generating conditions for its implementation and, thirdly, and no less important, it is desirable that there be a consensus on the proposed solution to satisfy the need that motivates the reform.
Our magna carta counts twenty-one electoral reforms. Traditionally, electoral reforms have taken place after presidential electoral processes. An exception, the only one in this sense, was the electoral reform of 1987, a very unfortunate experience that led to one of the most acute political crises in the country’s post-revolutionary history.
The initiative published in the Parliamentary Gazette last April originates from the Executive Branch without having been agreed in any way with the opposition political forces. Both situations are sui generis in the political-electoral history of the country, at least since the reform that took place in 1977.
The reform proposed by the President is transversal and covers the party system, the institutional and functional architecture of the electoral system, and the system of political representation.
In recent weeks there are many specialized voices that echo some concerns related to the functionality of the electoral system from the cracking of the pillars that support it, which are the product of decades of political and parliamentary struggle.
The importance of having a electoral professional service robust in the organization and sanction of elections, a topic known and recognized internationally.
The replacement of a professional electoral service by a structure assistant Y temporary it represents a severe setback in the country’s democratic progress.
For its part, the election of directors and magistrates by popular vote it implies the risk of turning the system into a political extension of the current government (by placing itself in the hands of activists rather than electoral professionals).
The election by popular vote of councilors and magistrates every six years in the terms set out in the initiative, precisely during the fifth year of the current presidency, disrupts de facto Y de jure the guarantee of impartiality and transparency of the presidential election process.
Another fundamental pillar and cornerstone of the conquests in electoral matters is having an electoral registry. trustworthy in the hands of the electoral institute, a situation that marks a before and after 1988. Trying to remove the formulation of a voter list from the federal electoral body is nonsense and represents the enormous risk of losing a reliable list in which neither excluded nor invent voters
There are in our Constitution and in international law fundamental rights related to political-electoral rights and the construction of democracy: freedom of expression, assembly, association or intervention in public affairs through participation in political life and voting. Those must be promoted, respected, protected and guaranteed under principles of universality, interdependence, indivisibility and progressiveness.
It is time to defend the advances in democracy in our country; Let’s work to generate spaces for dialogue and respect and move away from insults, disqualifications and small-time and very short-term Manichean strategies.