Flor Pablo: “It's time to propose an advance of elections”

President Pedro Castillo has sparked a heated discussion after announcing that he will submit a bill to the Congress that will seek to consult the population on the need to convene a Constituent Assembly. Positions for and against have been very clear on the part of various political groups. In that second group is the Morado Party Congresswoman, Flor Pablo, who has proposed an alternative that would also force the population to return to the polls.

“Mitigating the effects of the economic crisis and recovering the country's governance must be a priority. This is not the time for consultations for a new Constitution”, reads in a post by the congresswoman through her social networks. Pablo has been a critic of Pedro Castillo's government after the first months of his mandate, since at the beginning she and his group sought to maintain a certain closeness; however, the differences became noticeable over the months.

As an alternative to President Castillo's proposal, Congresswoman Pablo believes that “it is time to advance elections, following political and electoral reform with new rules of the game.” He commented on Twitter, a network in which he had already mentioned the measure to get rid of the crisis that is going through both the Executive and the Legislative branches, since both have very low approval rates in the polls.

“We must make a constitutional reform on the electoral political issue in this legislature, give legitimacy to those amendments in a referendum, hopefully in November that we have municipal and regional elections. And let the renunciation come with reform, with democratic succession and with new elections. This is it: we're all going. I include myself because it's not about our positions, it's about making the country viable, giving it stability to care for people who are hungry today,” Pablo told La República a few weeks ago.

INSIST ON MEASURE

Since the announcement of President Pedro Castillo's presentation of the bill, the feasibility of his proposal has been discussed, but doubts have also arisen about the process. For his part, the Minister of Culture, Alejandro Salas, said that “everything will be in the hands of Congress. No one should be frightened when it is the country's voters who will have to decide what they want.” However, given the positions announced during the last few hours, it is believed that the draft to be presented will not reach beyond the Constitution Commission, working team to propose to the plenary session projects related to the subject.

“If not everything wins remains the same and the Constitution of 93 is not changed. If Yes wins, elections will only be called to choose who will make up the Constituent Assembly so that the elected will draft a new Constitution under democratic rules,” he explained. For his part, President Pedro Castillo said that the consultation would take place on the same day that the regional and municipal elections scheduled for October of this year are held. It should be noted that this would not be the first time that consultations have been combined on the same date. In a recent election, there was a consultation on the return of money to Fonavi contributors.

“I must announce that we are going to send a bill to the Congress of the Republic,” were the first words used by Pedro Castillo to make it known that he intended to launch one of his campaign promises. “Following the constitutional course, so that in these upcoming municipal and regional elections Congress will approve this bill so that through a charter the Peruvian people will be consulted whether or not they agree with a new Constitution,” he added.

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