[ad_1]
After multiple signals from the Government, the municipal world and even the former President of the Senate, Jaime Quintana (PPD), opening up to postpone the date of the governors’ elections, a group of senators and deputies – together with the former president of the Presidential Commission of Decentralization, Esteban Valenzuela, and the mayor of Arica, Gerardo Espíndola – issued a statement in defense of these elections scheduled for April 11, 2021.
One of the signatories, the liberal deputy Vlado Mirosevic, maintained that “I can understand that the right, with a Portalian tradition, wants to stop decentralization because they have never believed in the election of regional governors. But I am very indignant that some sectors of the opposition, due to political calculations, are complicit in the same centralist attempt, since they have promised the regions more power for decades. This would be a frustrated new promise. ”
Mirosevic’s darts are in direct reference to the statements of the former President of the Senate, who raised – in an interview with The Mercury- the formula of suspending the election of regional governors “until the constituent body is pronounced.” If we really trust that there will be a new Constitution, it is reasonable to leave that decision and decentralizing model in the hands of the constituent body, ”argued the parliamentarian for La Araucanía.
Quintana’s statements gave air to the words of Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel, who spoke of “rationalizing” the electoral calendar as a result of the coronavirus crisis. The glove has also been picked up by the mayor of Estación Central, the UDI Rodrigo Delgado, who proposed suspending the governors’ elections to redirect those resources to the municipalities, arguing that the expenses associated with the process of implementing these new charges represent “a figure stratospheric ”, considering that the charge is“ a lion without teeth ”.
The declaration
However, in the declaration signed by Mirosevic and the opposition legislators, they emphasize that “a group of parliamentarians – initially from the ruling party, but later more transversal – has voiced their concerns that this election will take place from the beginning.”
In the view of the signatories, the aforementioned “have used different types of explanations, taking advantage first of the social outbreak and then the current pandemic. The truth – judging by their previous positions – is that they prefer that this election not be made.”
The declaration maintains that “many years have passed so that this longing can come true. There are many frustrated attempts and unfulfilled promises made by presidential candidates, leaving Chile as the only country of medium-high development in the world that does not elect its regional authorities. ”
Furthermore, the signatories allude to the current context, noting that “this health pandemic and its consequent economic and employment crisis has shown that we need more, not less, to strengthen and empower regional and local governments. There is no point in continuing to postpone something that we should have done a long time ago in our Republic. ”
The statement is signed by Senators Ricardo Lagos Weber (PPD) and Alejandro Guillier (independent); in addition to the deputies of the Liberal Party Vlado Mirosevic and Alejandro Bernales; Gabriel Boric, Gonzalo Winter and Diego Ibáñez of Social Convergence; the socialist deputy Maya Fernández; the head of the PPD deputies’ bench, Raúl Soto; DC deputy Miguel Ángel Calisto; the deputies of the Democratic Revolution Natalia Castillo and Jorge Brito; and the deputies of the Common Party Camila Rojas and Claudia Mix.
“Respect commitments”
The Decentralized Chile Foundation, led by Heinrich von Baer, also joined the debate, pointing out that Quintana’s proposal is “serious and inappropriate.”
For this reason, he maintains that “not respecting the simultaneity of the municipal and regional governor elections (both related to their territorial nature), recently approved by the almost unanimity of the National Congress (including Senator Quintana’s vote).”
In the opinion of this entity, proposals of this nature mean “not knowing and dismantling the progress of the decentralization process begun in Chile, which of course must be perfected with more powers and resources (as the government has committed), but in no case leave on hold, no less for several years until after a still uncertain constitutional process (…). It is time to respect and give certainty to the commitments made with the citizens of the regions, “he warns.
[ad_2]
