The governor of San Luis, Claudio Poggiadvanced in his project to incorporate profound changes in the local electoral system, as he had promised during the campaign and in his inauguration speech. The key is the Report of the Commission for Analysis of the Current Electoral System that analyzed the alternatives for the reform that will modify how Puntanos will vote. This Monday the 4th, The provincial head submitted to the Legislature the bill that establishes the Single Paper Ballot (BUP), the elimination of the Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primaries (PASO) and the Law of Mottos.
The report of said commission, which was established in August and was made up of provincial senators and deputies, was approved unanimously by the provincial Senate. Before drafting their report, the parliamentarians held meetings with more than 90% of the political parties active in that province, it was noted, to ensure that the work was representative. In addition, they received the authorities of the Electoral Justice –Ana Giménez Lanza and Eduardo Allende– so that they also contribute their views.
In this first stage of conclusions, issues of the electoral system were addressed and it is expected that before the end of the year an opinion will be issued on a protocol referring to what the process of changing provincial authorities should be like. The transition between Poggi and former governor Alberto Rodríguez Saá was non-existent, there were no meetings of technical teams, which generated multiple inconveniences and crossed accusations.
To put an end to doubts about whether these changes would be made through debate in both Chambers or through a call for reform of the local Constitution, something that the provincial head also promised, this Monday Poggi submitted a bill to the Legislature that establishes the BUP and the elimination of the Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primaries (PASO) and the Law of Slogans, adopting everything suggested by the Commission for Analysis of the Current Electoral System.
According to the details that were revealed, the BUP will be designed in a tabular, horizontal format, in which the first column will be intended for the identification of the political group, the next for the list number and the subsequent ones will represent an electoral category in the following order: governor, provincial senator, provincial deputies, mayors and commissioners. The design and printing costs will be the responsibility of the Provincial Electoral Tribunal, while the Executive Branch will guarantee the funds for the printing of the equivalent of one ballot per voter registered on the electoral roll.
Another highlighted aspect of the proposal is gender parity, which ensures equal representation of men and women on the candidate lists, which is maintained until the moment the lists are made official, without the electoral result being modified based on this. criterion.
“The pile of ballots with all the sublemas will be eliminated”
Poggi recalled this morning in an interview how cumbersome it was to vote with the Motto Law. “To enter the dark room last year was to find a bunch of ballots with all the sub-problems, it was an impossible thing for the voter, a proliferation of ballots everywhere. That is eliminated, will cease to exist and will be replaced by the Single Ballot of Paper”. held.
Asked about the reasons for leaving aside the PASO, he pointed out that each political party must decide according to its statute how it chooses its candidates “so we do not generate an additional complication for the citizen.” “We are simplifying the electoral system, we are giving it transparency, economy and it is more democratic,” he concluded.
If the Senate vote in which the commission’s report was approved is repeated in both chambers, the official project for the new electoral system to apply for the 2027 elections would be approved before the end of the year.
In any case, it was noted that Poggi’s administration would seek to deepen the changes in the coming months for which it would resort to a constitutional reform. In this way I would seek to move from the bicameral system to the unicameral system, which votes every four years, andl establishment of a system of alternate capitals, the extension of the legislative period of ordinary sessions and the incorporation of a consanguinity clause to prevent a family from perpetuating itself in power.
In addition, modifications to the system for appointing judges would be analyzed, limiting the powers of the Executive Branch; and limit the duration of elective positions of any kind to two continuous or alternating periods, whether legislative, executive, provincial or municipal.
Source: Ambito
