Студопедия — Constitutional changes
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Constitutional changes






In recent history Peru changed its Constitution twice: 1979 and 1993, under different circumstances.

The Constitution of 1979 was created along with assembly of the first democratic government after a 12-year military junta rule. In the sphere of elections, it introduced or reaffirmed the following positions:

· President, two Vice Presidents and the Congress were to be elected once every five years. There was no mechanism of direct democracy introduced.

· President’s position reaffirmed, allowing him to dissolve Congress if it rejects three proposals of the Cabinet of Ministers. As well, the President got more power in defining budget of the country, enabling him to lead more complicated economical plans.

· The bicameral Congress is established, consisting of Senate (60 members) and Deputy Chamber (180 members).

· The second round of elections was institutionalized if none of the candidates of the first round got more than 50% of the votes. This did not happen in practice until the 1990 elections.

· The voting age was reduced from 21 years to 18. As well, the requirement of literacy to participate in elections was lifted. As of 1981, almost 20% of people above 15 years of age were illiterate. As well, the literacy rate was different among males and females, thus this position improved representation of the nation (Index Mundi).

· Voting was proclaimed to be compulsory, with exception for members of police and armed forces who were forbidden to participate.

 

A good review of the Fujimori period of Peruvian history is provided by Levitski (1999).

Alberto Fujimori was elected President in 1990 from the Cambio 90 party. He was then a political outsider, also a descendant of Japanese immigrants holding double citizenship. Levitski argues that Fujimori was elected because of the public distrust in the old political elite, white, wealthy and Lima-based. However, both chambers of Congress were controlled by other political parties, thus limiting Fujimori’s ability to conduct economic policy.

After being elected the President, Fujimori faced the country where “Hyperinflation, the violent advance of the Shining Path guerrillas, and executive-legislative deadlock created a climate of ungovernability” (Levitsky 1999). To resolve this situation Fujimori conducted a self-coup (known as autogolpe): he temporarily dissolved the Congress and used the military to arrest key opposition political leaders on April 5, 1992. He temporarily delegated all legislative power to the executive branch and suspended the Constitution.

On November 22, 1992, the new Democratic Constitutional Congress was elected, where Fujimori’s party Cambio 90 got almost half of the seats. The goal of DCC was to draft the new variant of the Constitution, which it published on September 4, 1993. On October 31, 1993 a nationwide referendum ratifying the new Constitution took place. All opposition parties united in voting against it, while the government used the publicity apparatus to promote it. The new Constitution passed by a small margin. Fujimori promulgated it on December 29, 1993, and it took effect on January 1, 1994. The temporary DCC acted until the next general elections of 1995 (Levitsky). The big differences of the new Constitution as opposed to the old one are:

· Direct democracy mechanism was introduced as one of legislative mechanisms. Amendments to Constitution were allowed by means of a referendum or by approval by two consecutive Congresses. Ironically, the new Constitution itself was accepted by a referendum, which used to be not allowed under the suspended 1979 Constitution.

· Presidential term was fixed at 5 years and allowed one consecutive re-election.

· Presidential power was extended even more. The President could now dissolve the Congress after just two rejects of Cabinet of Ministers proposals (used to be three).

· The Congress was changed to a unicameral system of 120 representatives, later extended to 130. This severely reduced representativeness of the Congress, which used to have 180+60 members in the two chambers.

Without much controversy Fujimori got reelected in 1995. The legal background for his reelection in 2000 is provided by a statement of the Carter Center (2000):

“In 1996, the Congress passed its "Law of Authentic Interpretation," which stated that, in effect, President Fujimori's election in 1990 did not count against the two-term limit of the present constitution. This congressional action was not constitutionally definitive, but it added the sense of the legislature to the debate. In 1997, Peru's Constitutional Tribunal, with three of its members signing and four abstaining, issued its opinion that the Law on Authentic Interpretation was not applicable to the matter. Congress then removed the three members from the Constitutional Tribunal who signed the opinion. Their seats remain vacant, depriving the Constitutional Tribunal of the number of members needed to declare a law unconstitutional.” (2000)

Shortly after Fujimori was re-elected in 2000, the opposition parties obtained videos proving him corrupt. Fujimori proposed to organize new general elections in which he would not participate. In November 2000 during a visit to Tokyo, Fujimori faxed his resignation to the President of Congress.

After Fujimori’s resignation, another amendment was passed that prohibited consecutive re-election, but allowed two non-consecutive presidential terms.







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