MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay to hold plebiscite on social security

The initiative seeks to add to the Constitution the legal retirement age (60) and the worth of minimum pensions

Uruguay's Electoral Court has validated the required signatures therefore the South American country will be holding a plebiscite on social security concurrently with the Oct. 27 presidential elections, it was announced in Montevideo. The authorities said Wednesday that 276,167 signatures had been reached (10% of the citizens registered to vote).

 The Labor Union Pit-Cnt and parts of the opposition Frente Amplio pushed for the popular consultation on April 27 regarding the addendum to the Constitution making 60 the retirement age while equating the minimum pension to the national minimum wage.

Of the around 430,000 signatures endorsing the petition, some 90,000 were rejected due to inconsistencies with previous records. The Electoral Court confirming that the plebiscite is to go ahead has shocked a good part of the country's political and economic system.

With the social security plebiscite again an issue, the winners of last weekend's primary elections will now have something else on which to focus during their campaigns leading to the Oct. 27 showdown.

Pit-Cnt leader Marcelo Abdala pointed out that the plebiscite defends “a fundamental human right” and called on Uruguayans to “get out of the thesis of fear, terror, catastrophism.” He also pledged to dialogue with all political parties to reach agreements. If approved, it will not be “a catastrophe,” Abdala insisted.

“The success of this ballot has to do with building a better society in equality and justice,” he also argued while claiming that the plebiscite was not at odds with lowering child poverty, as the initiative's detractors have contended.