The Government of President Gustavo Petro presented to Congress this week its political and electoral reform with which it intends to change the bases of a system that has been permeated by corruption and caudillismo for decades. The Minister of the Interior, Juan Fernando Cristo, accompanied by a dozen congressmen from the Historical Pact, filed the text of the bill in the First Committee of the House of Representatives, where its discussion will begin in a few weeks. “If we do not fundamentally change the political system, the fight against corruption is a salute to the flag,” Cristo told the media.
This is the second time since Petro came to power, in August 2022, that the Government presents this project before the Legislature. The first attempt failed miserably in the fourth of its eight debates, during the discussion in the Senate’s first committee. The memory of that defeat was recorded in a video that went viral on social networks in which the former president of the Senate, Roy Barreras, is seen tearing up the text of the reform because it had lost its essence: “Today I ask the Minister and to the Government to withdraw this reform that no longer makes absolutely any sense. “This is my position on political reform without a mandatory and equal closed list,” Barreras said at the time.
Now, a year and a half after that legislative setback, one of the most notorious of the Government along with the file of the health reform and the recent collapse of the budget, President Petro has decided to once again insist on political and electoral reform, one of his main campaign promises. This draft legislative act, which must overcome eight debates, has only 11 pages, 9 articles, three fundamental pillars and a great objective: “Strengthen democracy and consolidate a cleaner and more representative political system,” according to the Government.
The current Minister of Politics, who was also during the Government of former President Juan Manuel Santos, insists that this reform is essential for compliance with the peace agreements signed by that Administration with the extinct FARC guerrilla in Havana. Cuba, in 2016. “The Final Peace Agreement establishes in point two the need for political and electoral reform that strengthens democracy and guarantees pluralistic participation. Better rules of the political game are key to consolidating a stable and lasting peace,” the minister wrote in his X account. The project is also based on the recommendations of the recognized 2016 electoral mission.
The first of the three pillars of the new proposal is state financing of campaigns. “The idea of financing political campaigns exclusively with state resources seeks to reduce the undue influence of private interests and guarantee more equitable electoral competition,” reads an explanatory document presented by the Ministry. According to the reform, political parties and movements are prohibited from receiving financing for the operation of foreign natural or legal persons. “The campaigns for the popular election of positions and public corporations will be financed completely with state resources, through advances, replacement of expenses and indirect state financing of some items that will include, at least, electoral propaganda and postal franchise,” the project says. of law.
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If Congress approves this point of the reform, conflicts of interest would be radically reduced, which often arise when parliamentarians have to legislate on matters that affect people or companies that gave them money for the campaign. During the discussion of the health reform, it was questioned that many parties that voted against had received financing from EPS and other companies in the health sector that would be directly affected by the project. The risk, however, is that this financing becomes underground, or that only that which is never made transparent, usually related to corrupt acts, remains.
The reform, in article three, also prohibits donations, gifts and gifts from citizens to campaigns and the hiring of transportation for voters on election day. “The idea is to guarantee equality between the political forces in coexistence and the accountability of the campaigns before the electoral limits is favored,” says the Ministry. It is not clear how it will be controlled. The last paragraph of that article establishes that the annual financing for the operation of political parties with legal status will increase, “for the fiscal period of 2027, by 50%, maintaining its value over time.” This is one of the gifts, or handouts, that the project incorporates for the parties and, therefore, the current congressmen.
The second pillar of the project, which proposes the obligation to have closed and equal lists for public corporations, is the one that has historically generated the most rejection in Congress, because it goes against the electoral barons who achieve very high votes in their regions and They do not need their parties to be elected. However, it has also been criticized because it can give a lot of power to whoever controls the parties. “The lists will be closed and blocked. In the formation of the lists, the principles of parity, alternation and universality will be observed, among others,” the reform says. The mandatory nature of closed and blocked lists would come into effect starting with the territorial elections of 2027.
This point has been a constant in the experts’ recommendations, but it has not been successful in the Senate or the House of Representatives. In addition to the regional leaders, the closed lists are also opposed by new political figures who have managed to reach parliament with preferential and opinion votes. For the reform, voting for an individual and not for the political project that a party represents makes it difficult to create these collective and programmatic processes, makes the vote more complex and maintains the chiefdoms. “We want parties with certified militancy, with solid internal democracy and for this to be the one that decides the places on the list and guarantees gender equality in politics,” Cristo said when defending his proposal.
In a recent interview with this newspaper, the minister insisted that the corruption scandals affecting Congress, such as that of the UNGRD, are repeated cyclically and will not end if the way of electing congressmen is not changed. “The political system works very poorly. These scandals are the product of an underlying problem: the weakening of political parties, preferential voting, and the campaign financing system. “There is the origin of all the problems, but we have not wanted to understand it,” replied Christ after taking possession. In that dialogue, the former congressman also outlined the general lines of the reform: “We get caught up in the scandal of the moment, we look for and atone for our guilt in those responsible, but people pass away and everything remains the same. If we do not change the way Congress is elected, corruption scandals will never end. If there are no strong parties, with a single closed list and a public and transparent campaign financing system, clientelism will continue,” he said.
The last of the pillars consists of the transformation of the electoral authority so that it is independent of political forces. Specifically, it proposes that the judges of the National Electoral Council, who today are elected by congressmen according to the number of seats of each party, be chosen by the high courts. “The election of the magistrates will be carried out through a public call organized by the Judicial Branch. From the list of eligible, the Constitutional Court will select three members, the Supreme Court of Justice three members and the Council of State three members,” the project reads.
According to Cristo, this measure, which will undoubtedly be very difficult to process in Congress because parliamentarians do not usually vote in favor of anything that takes away their power and influence, is intended to ensure a more transparent and reliable electoral process, since that electoral authority Its powers include monitoring and adjusting the electoral roll, setting campaign spending limits, and revoking the candidacies of disqualified persons. President Gustavo Petro referred to the proposal during his trip to New York: “It is a discussion that has been presented in Congress, even in bills, and it is valid, because an electoral court, an electoral referee, must be neutral and not be composed of the same participants in the electoral contest,” said the president, who has accused the current CNE of being part of a soft coup against him.
According to the Ministry’s arguments, eliminating the direct influence of the parties on the electoral authority seeks greater impartiality and citizen confidence in the results. To reform it, the reform proposes to prohibit CNE magistrates from being those who have held leadership positions in political organizations or have aspired to or held popularly elected positions in the seven years immediately prior to the date of registration for the public call. Furthermore, “the judges may not hold positions of party leadership, nor be appointed Ministers or Directors of Administrative Departments, nor be nominated for popularly elected positions.”
The three pillars of the reform follow the guidelines of the electoral missions and the peace agreement, but their processing in Congress will be complex, as has been the case with previous attempts to modify these bodies. In addition to the natural resistance of congressmen to change the rules with which they were elected, today Petro does not have the strong legislative coalition that it had when the first reform proposal collapsed and the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature has been deteriorating.
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