2024-04-05 10:53:04
Decision. The TC gives more power to Congress over the vacancy. Photo: diffusion.
In its recent ruling that declared the habeas corpus claim filed by former President Pedro Castillo inadmissible, the Constitutional Court took another step towards breaking the balance of powers.
In his petition, Castillo requested, among other requests, the annulment of the resolution of the Congress of the republic which declares its permanent moral incapacity and vacancy.
The TC, in considering 33, establishes that the cause of vacancy due to permanent moral incapacity corresponds to the “scope of interpretation and institutional political assessment of Congress” and must be determined “within parameters of strict reasonableness and within the framework of the guarantees of the due process”.
The TC adds that this figure “refers to conduct that is manifestly inappropriate or incompatible with the dignity and authority of the high public function of the presidency or to abuses of power.”
But immediately followingwards, the TC adds: “Its interpretation in the specific case is connected to the political and cultural ideology that prevails in a specific historical context.”
That is, the TC seems to suggest that a presidential vacancy may occur for ideological and cultural reasons, which implies a high degree of discretion on the part of the Legislative Branch.
Journalist and lawyer Rosa María Palacios pointed out that with this sentence, in practice, all stability has been taken away from whoever occupies the presidency of the Republic.
For her part, constitutional lawyer Beatriz Ramírez Huaroto warned that the vacancy due to moral incapacity has been validated with a “great margin for congressional action,” making official “the real weakness of the Peruvian presidencies.”
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