CSJ declares unconstitutional methods of collecting signatures to convene a constituent assembly

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The TE through Decree No. 16 of June 8, 2021 established four stages for the collection of signatures with dates established for each one.

Constituent: The stumbling blocks in the road to the collection of signatures

Constituent: The stumbling blocks in the road to the collection of signaturesArchive | The Star of Panama

The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) declared unconstitutional the method of collecting signatures, established by the Electoral Tribunal (TE), to convene a parallel constituent assembly.

The TE, through Decree No. 16 of June 8, 2021, established four stages for the collection of signatures, with dates established for each one.

Statistical report of the National Directorate of Electoral Organization of the TE on the collection of signatures to convene a Parallel Constituent Assembly by citizen initiative published on its official website, during the year 2021 three civic groups submitted their requests, which as a whole collected barely 2.92% of the total required headings in accordance with the provisions, constitutional and legal for each of these.

“The aforementioned is relevant, since it provides a snapshot of the difficulty that could be involved for citizens to obtain the percentage of signatures that the norm establishes for said civic exercise, which in turn will allow a greater understanding of an interpretation of itself. restrictive of the constitutional norm, such as the one postulated by the plaintiff regarding the number of initiatives and the possibility of adding the signatures collected, would put an obstacle or obstacle, even greater for the achievement of the exercise of the expression of the citizen’s will, “says the CSJ in its ruling.

The plenary session of the CSJ considers that the constitutional promoter interpreted the concept of “citizen initiative” in a restrictive manner and outside of what is contemplated in article 314 of the Magna Carta, also ignoring the difficulty that currently represents reaching the number of signatures required for greater citizen participation, in order for the exercise of constituent power to materialize, which is the main and supreme objective of the aforementioned process.

“Although the Electoral Tribunal is empowered to exercise the regulatory power in matters of the procedure and methods for the collection of the signatures, required in order to activate the Parallel Constituent Assembly through the citizen initiative, it is not possible for it to extend said power in order to delimit the moment, in which citizens can exercise their constituent power on their own initiative”, the Court specifies.

Ruling of the Court against decree of the TE on the collection of signatures for a Constituent Assembly

On the other hand, the Court declared that the second and third paragraph of the decree, which established that several initiatives can be organized simultaneously, is not unconstitutional and if, at the expiration of six months, the initiative had not managed to reach the number of signatures, it will not be able to transfer its signatures to another recognized initiative.

The ruling in the lawsuit filed by Mario Galindo had the saving vote of judge Maribel Cornejo for the first point, but she agreed with the unconstitutionality of article 7, which establishes methods and dates.



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