MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Merely 7% of Peruvians believe new constitution a priority

The poll contradicted Government officials claiming the Constitutional reform was a popular demand

According to a survey published Wednesday by Lima's El Comercio, only 7% of Peruvians believed a new Constitution was among the people's priorities.

The study was conducted and released days after President Pedro Castillo Terrones announced he planned to call for a referendum whereby Peruvians would decide whether to launch a Constitutional reform or not.

The Ipsos study showed an overwhelming majority of the people considered the current administration should focus on the fight against crime (43%), the fight against corruption (42%), and the generation of employment and economic reactivation (33%).

Other priorities include a full and safe return to on-site schooling (15%), the fight against COVID-19 (13%), and the reduction of job informality (8%), which affects around 75% of Peru's economically active population.

At the bottom of the list was the push for a constituent assembly (7%). Such a reform was a part of Castillo's promises while campaigning for office last year.

These data contradict recent statements by Prime Minister, Aníbal Torres, who insisted that, except in Lima, the drafting of a new Magna Carta was a demand from rural Peruvians, which is how Torres justified the bill the Castillo Government sent to Congress Monday to include a referendum on the matter in the upcoming Oct. 2 local elections.

Castillo's proposal will follow proper channels. If passed by Congress' Constitutional Committee, it would then be put up for voting by the parliamentary plenary.

The ruling party blames the current Constitution, adopted in 1993, under then-President Alberto Fujimori, for the economic inequalities stemming from the free market model it enshrines.

Castillo has admitted his team has already been working on the draft of a new Fundamental Law. Congressman Alex Flores Ramírez, who reportedly penned the proposed text, insisted the current Constitution outlined an “extractivist” model of a neo-liberal conception which denies many basic rights to people.