The Constitution and Regulations Committee of the Peruvian Congress approved on Wednesday an opinion that seeks to prevent censured ministers of State from holding a ministerial position within the same constitutional period.
With 10 votes in favor, five against and one abstention, the initiative that proposes to modify Article 25 of the Organic Law of the Executive Branch has been approved, thus prohibiting the Peruvian Government to appoint in other ministries those ministers whose management has been previously reproved in the Parliament of the country, reported Andina news agency.
Those who defend the proposal assure that the measure seeks to «really make effective» the power of political control that the Congress has through censure, «given that it is a political sanction that has as a consequence the separation of the Minister of State».
«The censure carries a political responsibility, so it is not convenient to reward the censured minister with a position similar to the one he had because it generates confusion in the population and makes the figure of political control useless», said one of the legislators of the opposition to the Executive of Pedro Castillo, according to the above mentioned agency.
The legislative initiative, however, must be submitted to the consideration of the full Congress for its eventual approval.
However, there are those who point out that such a change will have to go through a reform of the country’s Constitution and not only through the modification of a law, as detailed by the constitutionalist Omar Cairo in declarations to ‘La República’.
«A practice has already developed in the political process, which does not prohibit such designation. That practice has become a constitutional convention, that is, a customary rule that is part of the Constitution. Therefore, to change it requires not a law but a constitutional reform,» he explained.