The government of Gustavo Petro took the first firm step this Friday to realize its proposal to convene a National Constituent Assembly. This Friday, the Minister of Labor, Antonio Sanguino, carried out the official registration in the National Register of the Promotion Committee of the Constituent Assembly, made up of nine people, which will be responsible for promoting the collection of the nearly 3 million signatures (the equivalent of 5% of the electoral lists) necessary to advance a project to develop a new Constitution. “Starting today, with the filing of this initiative and with the registration of this committee of nine people, begins the process of collecting signatures so that the constituent power can express itself,” Sanguino said in statements to the media upon leaving the Registration Office.
What until now was only a proposal from the president, which appeared every time Congress blocked one of his social reforms – whether health, labor or tax reforms – or at a moment he considered critical, such as when the Superior Court of Bogotá acquitted former president Álvaro Uribe in second instance, is beginning to become a reality. However, this is only the first step in a process that promises to be long, complex and controversial: the idea is that the bill which aims to reform the Political Constitution of 1991 is approved by these signatures, then presented to Congress. Once in the hands of Parliament, it will have to study whether or not to approve the law with which citizens would be called to the polls. Then comes the biggest challenge: getting 13 million Colombians to vote in a positive way.
With the current Congress, the times are not favorable, nor are the parliamentary majorities, but the initiative gives momentum to the left-wing presidential campaign, currently led by Senator Iván Cepeda, candidate of the Historic Pact. “The most important thing is the constituent power,” Cepeda said recently in an interview with Radio Nacional. “Let the people mobilize. What form does this power take? It could be a good thing to win in Congress,” he added. “Or it can take the form of a Constituent Assembly.”
Petro himself knows that times are impossible before his term ends. “A political discussion will take place, but not in this Congress, but in the new one. So you, citizens, will decide if the majority of this new Congress does not take away the voice of the people, from the Constituent Assembly, or does not vote for it,” declared the president, less than three months before Colombians elect their new representatives, on March 8.
About The Author
