2023-04-17 13:20:03
BY: VICENTE ANTONIO ZEBALLOS SALINAS
In the conviction of the fundamental role that political parties assume in the construction of our democratic institutions, the electoral reforms are dynamic and subject to permanent revision, like yesterday when to break with the partisan caciques and free themselves from vertical impositions, not at all democratic, the so-called preferential vote was instituted, which today is in the perspective of being eliminated, carrying behind it the faults of others of a tenuous legitimacy, especially parliamentary; in the face of the serious incidents in political life, of private actors that are not holy, who boldly intervened without much control under the pretext of consolidating democracy, when their petty interest was covert profit, not necessarily economic but the facilities that power granted them. can be taxed, they motivated the incorporation with its own name of direct public financing to political parties
Democracy has a cost, within the contrast of proposals, for the citizen to choose and well, he has to decide on a political message, the same one that has to be plural and today they are no longer the traditional political rallies, decisive in the elections of in the past, but the ways to reach the voter are varied and complex and that implies resources.
It is not, then, only transparency, but the equality of conditions of the different electoral offers, as Kevin Casas points out: they directly affect electoral equity, on the real possibilities enjoyed by the parties and by the candidates to get their messages across to the voters; it affects in broader terms political equality; and it has an impact on political integrity and the autonomy of public decision makers.
Direct public or State financing of political parties has been a norm in our country for twenty years, included in our first law on political parties and applied since 2017, establishing: that it corresponds to political parties and electoral alliances that obtain representation in Congress; the equivalent of 0.1% of the UIT for each vote cast to elect representatives to Congress and charged to the General Budget of the Republic; being able to be used, during the five-year period following the aforementioned election in training, training, research and dissemination activities, ordinary operating expenses, which must be destined for the operation of the party committees, and furniture necessary to attend activities inherent to the object of political organization.
Let’s see the case of this year, last December the ONPE approved the financial transfer, from January to June of the year 2023, for a total of 7 million 798 001.64 soles, in favor of ten political organizations with parliamentary representation: Free Peru National Political Party (S/ 1,075,639.61), Popular Force (S/ 957,530.59), Popular Renewal (S/ 843,268.72), Popular Action (S/ 825,571.60), Alliance for Progress (S/ 741,414.23), Avanza País ( S/ / 741 130.77), Together for Peru (S/ 687 321.48), Somos Perú Democratic Party (S/ 661 153.18), Podemos Peru (S/ 644 211.68), and the Purple Party (S/ 620 759.78). But, during the period 2021-2026 they will receive a total of S/.77’980,000.00
However, and once once more, democratic condescension is overwhelmed -despite dealing with political groups whose aim is to administer the country- by the serious distortions in the correct use of these public resources, the limited powers of supervision and sanction for their misuse, they placed the issue in the public discussion: golden lists for their leaders, irregular acquisitions, forged rents, privileged expenditures; reason for which the governing body, the ONPE, elaborated a proposal that was pre-published, to specify in the respective regulation: the introduction of management practices and internal control, and that these resources actually promote political participation; criteria for its adequate, efficient and transparent use and the unavoidable rendering of accounts.
All public resources must be audited and well used, being a good democratic exercise the transparency of their use, subject to control mechanisms, public information, ensuring that they are really aimed at improving the levels of articulation between citizens and their democratic institutions through instance of the political parties, through assiduous training, and a permanent and dynamic exercise of developing party life; perhaps it should not come as a surprise, but in that human possibility of correcting itself, we had the expectation that said regulatory initiative would enjoy broad partisan support, and starting with the president of the Constitutional Commission of Congress, they raised their voice of claim, as if private interests were being affected, when correcting the proper use of public resources. Although the ONPE proposal is at the regulatory level, surely a law will be proposed to neutralize it or the person in charge of the office of electoral processes will be subject to constitutional accusation.
In the parliamentary debates, to deliver public resources to the political parties, there were discordant and well-argued voices, which warned us of the possible empowerment of the political parties and of the null possibilities of oversight, and with the greater risk of corruption, how right they were the fears of that time.
The political crisis in which we are immersed and we have not quite settled it, has a support, which is the political parties; A democracy, like the one we aspire to, cannot be supported by weak, opportunistic parties, without projection or vision of the State, absorbed by conjunctures and group pettiness; That is the problem of our weak democracy.
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