Global Courant
The ninth legislature of Congress has been headed by the official party Vamos por una Guatemala Diferente (Let’s go), their political operations together with other parties have led them to receive the pseudonym “government alliance.”
It is a group of benches from different political parties that support the ruling party, and that during the current legislature have demonstrated their power with the approval of laws in a matter of hours.
Subsidies, budget extensions and loans are some of those initiatives that have passed fleetingly within the chamber to become laws.
But analysts point out that this political machine has not served to achieve the common good, on the contrary, they detect a series of private interests that have been overshadowing the image that Congress and its deputies have.
With the general elections on June 25, Guatemalans will have the opportunity to renew the congress, or, on the contrary, reaffirm and even consolidate the dominant political alliance that predominates in the Legislative Branch.
The sources consulted highlight something essential for the next generation of deputies, that is, the tenth legislature, it will be to refine a legislative agenda for the country.
This would mean integrating both pro-government and opposition proposals, as long as they have as their background the social benefit of the population that should be represented before parliament.
The next legislature will have 160 deputies and an undefined number of benches, since 28 political parties compete for seats in the Legislature and only the political parties Prosperidad Ciudadana and Poder were left out, due to receiving judicial resolutions against them.
These future deputies will have, according to the criteria of political experts, at least five major challenges for the period 2024-2028.
Election of Courts
Possibly, the renewal of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) and Courts of Appeal is one of the most talked about issues within Congress, since a court ruling broke the constitutional norms on the rotation of judicial officers within the Judicial Branch.
This task has been pending since the eighth legislature, but the current deputies, despite having scheduled the issue, have not seen the political will to make this change.
This was demonstrated by an evaluation carried out by the Efficient Congress, which has seen this issue as one of the great pending issues in Guatemalan politics.
For María del Carmen Aceña, a member of the Efficient Congress and the Center for National Economic Research (Cien), the way of electing Cortes must be improved, perhaps even with reforms to the postulators.
“The design of the Nomination Commissions, how to make them transparent and get them to choose the Courts,” Aceña reaffirmed, alluding to the fact that the way in which judicial authorities are selected should be improved.
Reforms to the Lepp
The current event of general elections revealed that reforms are needed to the Electoral Law and Political Parties (Lepp), points out Alejandro Valverth, director of the Legislative Observatory.
The expert points out that currently the legislative function is not that of a check and balance system for the Legislative Body, on the contrary, they seem to go hand in hand with decision-making.
During its first year, the current magistracy of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) presented reforms to the Lepp, but it was only a few months before the call for elections that a favorable opinion was presented.
The big bet of that opinion was the election of deputies by open lists, that is, voting for each candidate and not for a list, but that opinion was not even scheduled for its first reading.
“Among the challenges of the next Congress will be to be a brake and a counterweight that allows control of power, be it from the Executive or from another body. That is one of the main challenges”, said Valverth.
Reforms to the Justice Sector
A pending task according to Roberto Alejos, former president of Congress and former constituent, is for the deputies to promote a profound reform of the justice sector.
This includes modifications to the Nominating Commissions Law, where second-level authorities are elected, such as the Public Ministry (MP), the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGC), CSJ magistrates, to name a few.
Instances in charge of an investigative, supervisory role and the administration of justice, which according to Alejos need to be strengthened and those changes can and should come from a good Congress of the Republic.
“The reforms to the justice sector that were pending, and of course return to what we (the constituents) left behind,” explained Alejos.
Currently, within the legislature there is the Commission for Reforms to the Justice Sector, in it rest legislative initiatives that are related to the operation of the OJ, but in the ninth legislature, the commission has gone practically unnoticed.
Amparos law reforms
Experts have identified that in the current election process there has been a dynamic of judicialization, with the presentation of hundreds of legal resources that end with amparo actions before the CSJ and the Constitutional Court (CC) itself.
“It has to have reforms, it got out of hand when we said that there was no area outside the protection, this cannot continue; For example, the decisions of the TSE go through all the courts and it is no longer supreme,” Alejos said.
In the current voting event there were almost a hundred injunctions that stopped the printing of ballots for a few days, since the number of challenges kept in uncertainty about who should and who should not appear on the ballots.
“The laws should be reviewed to eliminate those that no longer work, but also to make an archive of all the laws that exist in the country. In recent years, we have seen that they say that a certain law modifies all those related to the subject, but they do not quote us which ones they are,” Aceña pointed out, referring to the fact that there are regulations that even require an update.
Reforms to the civil service law
Although the subject does not profile in the great public discussions, in the opinion of Alejos, it is necessary to reform said law to avoid a series of acts of corruption that occur from the public administration.
“A new civil service law because otherwise we are not going to stop with ghost jobs, with very high contracts and a system where those who are budgeted earn poorly and retire poorly,” he said.
Even today, Aceña pointed out, in order to bring order to Congress and advance on national issues, technological resources can be supported, “with the era of digitization and artificial intelligence, technology and science, it is the way we have to get ahead”.
In 2015, several representatives of the Congress of the Republic were subject to preliminary trials that later ended their immunity and ended with arrest warrants and criminal proceedings, due to their involvement in acts of corruption for a series of phantom seats within Congress.
The presidents
On January 14, 2020, the official party faced off against the National Unity of Hope (UNE) to take over the presidency of the Board of Directors of Congress. That battle was won by the ruling party.
Orlando Blanco headed the opposition list, but the counterproposal led by Allan Rodríguez, deputy elected for the Sololá district, was victorious, thanks to the support of some deputies from UNE itself, whom Blanco and the rest of the unistas labeled as traitors. .
In 2021, Allan Rodríguez again won the presidency of Congress for the second consecutive year, despite having on his shoulders the controversial approval of the 2021 budget.
On that occasion, the deputies related to the pro-government alliance approved the budget required by President Alejandro Giammattei as a matter of national urgency and in the middle of the night, which generated a series of social protests.
The parliamentary dynamics of that time generated criticism against deputy Rodríguez, for which reason the pro-government supporters opted in 2022 to head their list with the also pro-government member, Shirley Rivera.
The official machinery once again won the presidency of the Legislative Board of Directors, and one of the initiatives that generated the most controversy was the approval of the Law for the Protection of Life and Family.
Said law generated social and critical protests from various sectors that considered the regulation dangerous for non-traditional families, made up of father, mother and children, but mainly because it could end up criminalizing women for suffering a natural abortion due to health problems.
The ruling party took over the Presidency in the last year of the legislature, again under the leadership of Rivera, who will command parliament until January 14, 2024, when the period of the ninth legislature ends.
a good unit
Although now the pro-government alliance dominates Congress, analysts reiterate that a political unity is required, but one that does not seek only personal or sectoral benefits.
“It is important that all State agencies work together, but transparently, with an authentic vision of the country that we all share, with benefits for all and not only for politicians,” Aceña concluded.
Along with this unity of the nation, for Valverth it is essential “to also promote an agenda that is committed to Human Rights”, which allows, according to the interviewee, to avoid a series of abuses.
The Congress of the Republic is made up of 160 deputies, 32 elected by the national list whose ballot paper is green; while the light blue ballot is for the election of the 128 deputies that will represent the following districts:
Central District: 11 representatives District of Guatemala: 19 representatives Sacatepéquez: 3 representatives Chimaltenango: 5 representatives El Progreso: 2 representatives Escuintla: 6 representatives Santa Rosa: 3 representatives Sololá: 3 representatives Totonicapán: 4 representatives Quetzaltenango: 7 representatives Suchitepéquez: 5 representatives Retalhuleu : 3 representatives San Marcos: 9 representatives Huehuetenango: 10 representatives Quiché: 8 representatives Baja Verapaz: 2 representatives Alta Verapaz: 9 representatives Petén: 4 representatives Izabal: 3 representatives Zacapa: 2 representatives Chiquimula: 3 representatives Jalapa: 3 representatives Jutiapa: 4 representatives
