During his participation in the Grupo Madrugadores de Tijuana session last July, the general secretary of government, Francisco Rueda Gomez, spoke of the homologation process of Baja California's Constitution with the recently approved reforms of the Federal Constitution, as well as the political electoral reform that was recently and unanimously approved by Baja California Congress, emphasizing that executive and legislative power have agreed to discuss topics that would change the rules of the political electoral game.

Reelection

"Thanks to the fact there was a local agreement between the parties in Baja California, the homologation of this reform was achieved before the established date, having been approved on July 10th," said the secretary, "now, one of the principal themes that will integrate this political-electoral reform is reelection. Many are in favor and many others against, but, even though it is a topic of debate, a conclusion has been reached."

Rueda Gomez indicated that at the federal level, it was established that deputies will be able to be reelected starting the 2015 elections; this means that candidates that are elected in 2015, will be able to be reelected in 2018, for up to four terms, which translates to twelve years. With regard to senators, reelection will only be possible for one term, which means six years, to complete a twelve year cycle; this applies to the federal level. On the local level, when homologating these figures, reelection will be possible in Baja California starting in 2016. Regarding legislators, they will be up for reelection for up to four consecutive terms. Equally, with the electoral reform, the door opens to allow others to be reelected – for another term – such as mayors, councilors and union lawyers, if they run for the political party or coalition they represented when they were first elected and the citizens concede them their confidence through a free and fair election.

Independent Candidacy

Rueda followed with the subject of independent candidacy, signaling that now a citizen can be nominated without needing to belong to a party.

The citizens' or independent candidacies will be financed with public resources and can participate in governor, municipal and representative elections under the principle of relative majority.

"We see a reform that breaks certain taboos and give a much needed freshness to the citizen's participation. Now, a citizen interested in participating in the election does not have to invest time and effort to obtain a political party membership, and can use it to improve his proposals," stated the secretary.

Campaign Times

The secretary mentioned that pre-campaign times will be shortened and the swearing in will be held earlier. Campaigns will not exceed 60 days, and the transition periods will be of two months and not four for the state government; this means that city council will have three months instead of six.

Sanctions for political parties that do not present the transparency of their campaign costs will be greater.

Likewise, the minimum percentage established for a political party to maintain its official registry will be 3% of the votes cast in the ballot boxes.

Election draws... Continue reading article here

Find more news at BusinessConexion

Follow Business Conexion on Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin

editorial@businessconexion.com