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In the midst of the discussion of the necessary political reform in Congress, which contains key issues in terms of gender equality for elections, renewal of politics and campaign financing, the First Committee of the House included an issue that initially generated controversy: increase the number of senators.
It all started when, in the middle of the debate, a proposal was put into discussion, which sought that the departments that Today they only have two seats in the Chamber and now have an additional seat in the Senate, which seeks to grant greater representation to those territories that are forgotten in the country.
“It is unfair that at this point 50 percent of the national territory does not have representation. When the bills come out of the House they fall short when they reach the Senate, there is no one to defend them, ”said Guaviare congressman David Pulido, who defended this proposal.
(See also: The hard pulse for the motion of censure to the Minister of Defense)
However, this proposal, which was approved by the First Committee of the House, implies an increase in the number of congressmen in the country, since they are new seats that are created in the Senate.
“They want to increase 12 senators amid the worst crisis that Colombia is experiencing today. It has no presentation. That some take advantage of the political reform to hang monkeys, ”said Representative Edward Rodríguez, who pointed out that this implies not only the cost of the salary of the new legislators but also of their advisers.
It should not have a significant fiscal cost
Faced with this issue, the representative José Daniel López, coordinator of the project, indicated: “It should not have a significant fiscal cost, since the number of seats provided here will replace the seats that the peace agreement granted to the Farc Party, which are temporary and go only until 2026.”
Currently, the Farc Party, which emerged from the Havana agreement, has 10 seats in Congress, which go only until 2026.
For his part, the liberal representative Juan Carlos Losada stated “that in the Senate
they take out votes everywhere and they don’t represent anyone, they don’t represent people, they don’t represent citizens or territories, the only thing they represent is the fiefdom from which they come. “
In any case, despite the arduous discussion, this proposal was finally approved by the First Committee of the House.
“There will be an additional Senator for each of the territorial constituencies that have only two Representatives to the House. The candidates who are elected by this special constituency must be from the respective departments or have resided in them for at least the two years prior to the election, “says the proposal approved by the corporation.
Gender parity
Beyond this discussion, the political reform approved in its first of eight debates has other key issues that were endorsed by the corporation.
– Parity lists: One of the milestones was the approval of gender parity in the formation of the lists. The idea is that the iron is made up of men and women in an interspersed way. In other words, if there is a woman in the first line, there must be a man in the second and a woman in the next.
This is one of the greatest recent achievements of Congress, as it is a key advance in terms of gender equality and the renewal of politics.
“It is not only about more women candidates, but also more elected women,” said Congressman López.
State funding: Applicants currently have to resort to private resources to finance their campaigns, which sometimes encourages corruption. The idea is that, if the reform is approved, the resource to finance will be public, with which there would also be greater control.
Closed lists: It consists in that citizens vote for parties and not for people when marking the cards to elect public corporations (Congress, assemblies and councils). To the extent that a party obtains more votes, more people are elected from the list or plate that that community has presented.
Currently, the majority of political parties and movements go to elections with open lists. Each candidate has their own number and campaigns separately, so the model has been questioned, as the lack of funding filters has allowed applicants to spend large amounts of money and have even obtained illegal funding.
TIME
