MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: Lower House gives thumbs down to open primaries

The PASO elections were created in 2009 under CFK and held for the first time in 2011

Argentina's Lower House approved this week by 162 votes in favor, 55 against, and 28 abstentions, the elimination of the so-called Mandatory, Simultaneous, and Open Primary (PASO) Elections whereby the country's constituencies chose each party's candidates. The measure proposed by the ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA) of President Javier Milei now needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be implemented in this year's mid-terms.

“Great step in the Chamber of Deputies. We hope to pass the bill to suspend the PASO also in the Senate to avoid an unnecessary expense for the State, which does not give prestige to politics in front of the Argentine people, who are forced to bear a responsibility that is the responsibility of the political parties,” Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos said.

In addition to being a parliamentarian victory for the Libertarian government, it also showed the opposition Unión por la Patria (UxP) of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) and former presidential candidate Sergio Massa broken up into those who voted in favor (25), against (43) or abstained (24), while six UxP lawmakers were absent.

Joining the Executive's initiative were traditional allies such as former President Mauricio Macri's Propuesta Republicana (PRO) and the MID, as well as “dialogist” opposition benches such as the Radical Civic Union (UCR) and Encuentro Federal.

The PASO elections were created in 2009 under CFK and held for the first time in 2011. They are primary elections to define candidacies, not offices. Thus CFK's government dodged internal turmoil by passing on the burden to voters in a country where it is mandatory.

Congressman Germán Martínez, who chairs the UxP bloc, criticized the Government for its lack of debate on the Budget and accused Economy Minister Luis Toto Caputo of corruption. On the other hand, his LLA counterpart Gabriel Bornoroni insisted the PASO were expensive and not beneficial to the citizenry. LLA allies also contended that the PASO meddled with the political parties' internal affairs.

The original bill included a broader reform suppressing the PASO and abolishing public funding for electoral campaigns. However, only five articles of the initial draft survived political grinding. The PASO's death certificate is now expected to be a speedy passage through the Upper House. The end of the PASO would force parties or alliances to determine whether to hold internal primaries or pick their candidates in any other fashion.

Also Thursday, the Lower House greenlighted a reform to the Criminal Procedural Code whereby offenders already under prosecution for a previous crime must automatically remain in detention, thus ending the so-called “revolving door.” Strikingly enough, 94 lawmakers opposed the initiative which was approved with 138 votes in that sense and one abstention. Another twitch to the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure provides for trials in absentia. These measures too now need the Senate's nod.