July 19, 2021 2:32 PM
Roger Velez
The occasional specialized commission for the treatment of draft amendments and constitutional reforms will review what happened with the project promoted by the Democratic Institutionalization Committee, which did not have the votes to be approved by the previous Legislature.
The president of the Commission, Francisco Jiménez (Ceo), announced this Monday that for this purpose he will call the coordinator of the Committee, Pablo Dávila, to appear, although without defining a date.
Jiménez and other of the members of the roundtable, indicated that there are doubts about the procedure followed by the previous Assembly, where there were not the 91 votes that were required for the citizen initiative project to be approved and go to referendum.
The Commission received this morning the appearance of the former secretary-rapporteur of the Amendments Commission, José García, who indicated that all the information required for a follow-up stage of the project had been sent to the Constitutional Court.
The Social Christian legislator Esteban Torres stated that “a follow-up phase could not drastically alter what the Plenary has already decided.”
Ordóñez insisted that the previous Parliament “altered the procedure” for a resolution on the issue, since approval would not be possible by a qualified majority (91 votes) but by a simple majority (70). He stated that he does not agree with the Correista Fernando Cedeño, that you cannot “revive a dead person.”
However, Torres replied that this requirement was established by resolution of the Plenary, since it was not specified either in the Constitution or in the Law of the Legislative Function, regarding the process of a partial reform of the Constitution.
The project aimed to eliminate the Citizen Participation Council (CPCCS), transform the Assembly into a bicameral body and deploy greater autonomy for the Prosecutor’s Office.
The former reporting secretary considered that this proposal can no longer be taken up, because the Plenary has already ruled and the decision was reconsidered, which does not prevent another similar proposal from being presented.
Among those pending of the commission are three draft amendments: one to elect the Galapagos Governing Council by popular vote, another so that the parliament can have a greater impact on the control of the State budget, and a third on the number of votes that is required to process presidential vetoes on bills.
Read the original coverage from El Comercio at https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/comision-asamblea-reforma-constitucion-cpccs.html
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