President Peruvian classifies law-veto to referendum as anti-democratic | News

The president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, affirmed this Sunday that the National Congress violates the popular will, by imposing a law that gives him the power to veto a referendum on the possibility of holding a Constituent Assembly.

READ ALSO:

Pedro Castillo faces a new destabilizing attack in Peru

"We will not allow the political participation of Peruvians to be violated, underestimating, conditioning and subjecting their will to the mercy of the sole opinion of Congress," said the president.

Despite the observations that the Executive presented to the text approved last December, the Legislative ratified the norm last Friday with unusual speed and without debating the details presented.

The head of state reaffirmed his criteria to challenge the norm before the Constitutional Court, since it is “anti-democratic and unconstitutional”, in addition to going against the popular designs of having a constituent assembly.

"Peru needs to be refounded in the face of an obvious crisis, giving the only power to the citizens," added the president, for which he insisted that it is necessary to replace the current Magna Carta.

With 72 votes in favor, including the vote of the president of Congress, Maricarmen Alva, 44 against and with no abstentions, the Legislature gave way to the promulgation of the norm by which "all constitutional reform initiatives, which are submitted to consultation popular, must first pass through parliamentary jurisdiction”, as stated in the Congress statement.

The head of state called the new law an "attack against the population that has demanded for years the change of a Constitution conceived in the dictatorship," referring to the neoliberal government of Alberto Fujimori, who is in prison for crimes against humanity and corruption. confess.

According to Castillo, the opposition Congress "forgets that the power of the State emanates from the people and is due to its representativeness" and citizens have the right to bet on their own well-being.

Similarly, the law against the constituent was criticized by the former candidate for the Peruvian Presidency, Yonhy Lescano, a member of the centrist party, Ación Popular (AP) whose parliamentary caucus supported the legislation, a group that since 2001 promoted the change of the Constitution.