The ruling party suffered its second defeat this week. In the plenary session convened yesterday, a quorum was not achieved once more and the initiative presented by Bernardo Arévalo to reform the Organic Law of the Public Ministry was not known.
The attempt by the independent deputies, elected by Semilla, to obtain the 107 votes required to approve the national emergency project is far from being achieved.
Yesterday the board recorded the attendance of 40 deputies, a number that was insufficient to open the session.
Surprise
The content of the initiative was presented for the first time last Sunday at the National Palace of Culture by Bernardo Arévalo and other Executive officials. According to deputies who attended the called meeting, they were only informed that the initiative was to promote the dismissal of the current attorney general, María Consuelo Porras.
“The initiative presented was a surprise to everyone and a reform of this nature requires a high-level analysis, detailed with the time necessary to take a position. From one day to the next it is very risky,” said Nery Ramos, president of Congress.
The absence of the deputies prevented at least the initiative from being read and sent to a working committee for discussion. Ramos considered that the absence of deputies might have occurred due to the demonstrations that have taken place around the Legislative Palace.
The legislator acknowledged that the initiative delivered last Monday and the urgency of the ruling party to approve it in one go changed the atmosphere in Congress, “following this initiative there is some tension in the environment,” he said.
Official deputy Raúl Barrera has a different opinion. The congressman considered that the lack of attendance of the deputies is due to the pressures that exist once morest Arévalo’s initiative.
“It is a fact that there is great political pressure for some deputies not to be present here or they are being pressured to vote once morest,” he explained.
Despite the non-attendance in two consecutive sessions, the ruling party insists that the project must be considered a national emergency.
“The tool we have is to propose this as an alteration to the agenda, ask for it to be read, then ask for the opinion to be waived and then ask for it to be approved as a matter of national urgency,” Barrera said.
More analysis
The bill, although it only seeks to change article 14 of the Organic Law of the MP, is complex. It needs an in-depth study by the different groups of Congress, according to the president of the Legislative Body.
“I think that what is prudent is the time necessary for them to read it, analyze it in the different aspects if it does not conflict with other regulations. Let them make a decision freely.”
In relation to the threats that some deputies received, as reported by legislator Samuel Pérez last Tuesday, Ramos added that some told him that they received pressure, but he did not want to detail how many and what type of intimidation they were victims of.
#Congress #proposal #reforms #law
