The civic movement known in Spanish as Participacion Ciudadana (Citizen Participation) delivered on 12 September 2017, in the afternoon, its recommendations to the Joint Congressional Commission that is studying the Political Parties and Groups Bill.
The civic society organization presented the issues that it feels the political parties have avoided, thus preventing the parties from reaching of a consensus. For example, Citizen Participation insists that primaries of the political parties should be carried out when each party decides to do so within the pre-election time frame, either using their own voter lists or the universal list prepared by the JCE. They also call for a 40% participation of women in elective positions as well as in party leadership. The question of financial transparency is also among the priorities stressed by Citizen Participation together with a series of penalties for those who commit crimes and violate citizen rights.
Furthermore, Citizen Participation observed: “It is strange that among the agreements they [political parties] have omitted is the clause the Law Of Free Access to Information that obligates parties to reveal all information related to their income and expenditures of both the public and private contributions received.”
Curiously, for many readers, PC calls for an increase in spending for training and educating party members, by increasing the 10% of funding agreed upon by the parties to 20%, only 5% below previous levels. PC understands that the parties must have received at least 2% of the votes cast in the last election in order to be recognized by the Central Electoral Board (JCE).
13 September 2017
