Córdoba approved the Clean Record law: how it will affect future candidates and public officials

The Córdoba legislature approved, in general and in particular, the Clean Record bill with 65 votes in favor. In this way, the new regulations will prevent candidates who had convictions confirmed in the second instance from running for public office.

Córdoba approved its own Clean Record project

After the vote in the venue, Córdoba became the 8th province to approve a Clean Record bill, which limits access to elective positions for those people who are convicted of criminal offenses. In this way it adds to Chubut, Jujuy, Mendoza, Rio Negro, Salta, Santa Fe and San Juan.

In addition to approving the new regulations, the project also produced modifications to the articles of the Law No. 9,571which establishes the Provincial Electoral Codeand the Law No. 9,572which frames the Legal Regime of Political Parties.

Thus, the approved changes in the requirements will not only affect candidates for public office representing a party or political force but will also affect those officials who apply for the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branches. Thus, any applicant who has a “conviction that has been confirmed by a sentence issued by the court of subsequent instance, by appeal or challenge, ordinary or extraordinary in accordance with the procedural rules that are applicable”, will be disqualified from holding office.

The new regulations are expected to come into force and impact the provincial legislative elections that will be held in 2025. Representative Busso, one of the promoters of the project, maintained that: “suitability is a condition required not only for those who are elected by the people or by those who aspire to integrate party cadres, but it is a condition for those who had the honor of holding public office at the service of citizens”.

The Río Negro Legislature turned the Clean File project into law

After the impossibility of discussing the project in the National Congress, different provinces began to discuss the Clean Record regulations in their respective legislatures. Córdoba thus joins Río Negro, a territory in which this regulation was also approved last week.

The bill had been sent by Governor Alberto Weretilneck, preventing leaders with convictions for intentional crimes may be candidates for national and provincial positions, as well as occupy partisan positions. Within the framework of the extraordinary sessions, the local parliament gave the green light to the official initiative with 36 positive votes and five negative ones, and was highlighted as a “a real shock of confidence” by the administration of Juntos Somos Río Negro (JSRN).

As approved, the new regulations contemplate that no person with a double conviction for intentional crimes can hold positions both for provincial elective candidacies as supporters. The law also includes similar restrictions in the case of officials of the Provincial Executive Branch.

Weretilneck added in this sense that “This law, which was born from a project by the Executive Branch, marks a before and after in Rio Negro politics. It is not just a law: it is a commitment to ethicstransparency and a policy that responds to the values ​​of society. In Río Negro there is no place for criminals or the corrupt.”

The initiative modifies articles 83° and 147° of Law ON° 2431, Electoral and Political Parties Code. It is the only one of its kind at the national level, since covers all intentional crimesthus reaching even minor crimes against people and not only against the Public Administration, as is the case of the other projects known so far. Exceptions are those convicted of crimes against honor, that is, slander and insults (Title II, Second Book of the Penal Code).