ARGENTINA

On May 13, the meeting of the Constitutional Affairs Committee ended, in which they unanimously approved the bill that postpones the primary elections to September 12 and the general elections to November 14. It is expected to be dealt with in the precinct in the short term.

The president of the Committee, Hernán Pérez Araujo (FDT – ruling party), pointed out that this bill “derives from a political agreement of the forces that make up this Chamber”, and that “its intention is to gain time to carry out the election in a sanitary and responsible manner”.

In this sense, Representative Gustavo Menna (UCR – opposition) said that “it would only be necessary to add that one of the requests we made has not been attended: to modify the way of voting, leaving behind the partisan ballot system and moving towards the single ballot”. On the other hand, Deputy Carolina Gaillard (FDT – ruling party) pointed out that “the electoral calendar coincides with a date that could put a large part of the population at risk and the bill only modifies that point. The single ballot would imply an electoral reform that would require other times”.

It is worth mentioning that the text was presented by the Executive Branch in agreement with the opposition and that it incorporates a lock clause requested by Juntos por el Cambio which states that, once the postponement is approved in Congress, the law cannot be modified or repealed.