The Special Electoral Juries (JEE) of Áncash, Ica, Junín, La Libertad, Lima Norte 2 and Lima Este 2 proclaimed six candidates who sought to return to serve as mayors as councilors, in cases that involve an alleged covert re-election. On the other hand, the JEE of San Martín and Amazonas chose to proclaim them as mayors in two other cases. The decisions show that there is no uniform criterion.
Another 12 cases remain pending ruling, including that of Rafael Lopez Aliagawho hopes to lead the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima again.
In Ica, the JEE declared unenforceable the proclamation of Jorge Luis Quispe Saavedra, of Popular Renewalas mayor of the San Juan Bautista district. The organization indicated that it could not assume the position again.
“His proclamation and subsequent exercise of the position would mean immediate continuity in the mayor’s office, in contravention of the constitutional prohibition indicated in article 194 of the Political Constitution of Peru,” said the JEE of Ica.
The decision was adopted by majority, with two votes in favor and one against. Magistrate Hilda Montes Navidad cast the minority vote, considering that Quispe should be proclaimed mayor, since he had run as councilor and, in her opinion, the figure of re-election would not be configured.
The JEE of Ica proclaimed Rita Guerrero Cajo, who was second on the list of councilors, as mayor.
The district mayors José Corpus Méndez (Marca, Áncash), Benito Aguilar Rojas (San Jerónimo de Tunán, Junín), Wilmer Sánchez Ruiz (La Esperanza, La Libertad), Salvador León Clement (Víctor Larco Herrera, La Libertad), Alfredo Reynaga Ramírez (Independencia, Lima) and Richard Soria Fuerte (El Agustino, Lima) were proclaimed as first councilors of their respective jurisdictions.
Instead, the Special Electoral Juries (JEE) of San Martín and Amazonas proclaimed Carlos Hidalgo Réategui (Zapatero, San Martín) and Hermógenes Lozano Trigoso (Condorcanqui, Amazonas) as mayors, respectively.
At the close of this edition, the cases of Regis Pomalaya Godoy (Quilmana, Cañete), Diana Apulceta Cáceres (Mejía, Arequipa), Alejandro Bustamante Arteaga (Catilluc, Cajamarca), Enrique Navarro Cacho Sousa (Pimentel, Lambayeque) and Luis Maldonado Amao (San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima) remained pending ruling at the district level.
Six cases are added to this list at the provincial level: Rafael López Aliaga (Lima), Jubinal Nicodemos Flores (Rioja, San Martín), César Caballero Nashnate (Requena, Loreto), Richard Ale Cruz (Islay, Arequipa), Polanski Carmona Cruz (Ferreñafe, Lambayeque) and May Díaz Pérez (Lamas, San Martín).
A particular case is that of Nelson Tito Eguía, mayor of the Nicolás de Piérola district, in Arequipa. Unlike the previous ones, this candidate applied directly for the position of mayor. His argument is that in the 2022 elections he was elected councilor, but his political organization’s candidate for mayor resigned during the electoral process.
All these proclamations will be reviewed ex officio by the plenary session of the National Elections Jury (JNE), which must establish a uniform criterion to resolve the cases. “You are going to have to establish the criteria that has been demanded so much,” electoral law specialist José Manuel Villalobos told El Comercio.
Through a plenary agreement on October 28, the JNE determined that it will review the proclamation minutes with the purpose of “guaranteeing double jurisdiction and uniformity of jurisdictional criteria.”
Electoral law specialist José Tello, president of the Aklla Peru Institute, questioned whether some JEEs have applied the prohibition on immediate reelection of mayors during the proclamation stage. He argued that the restriction provided for in Article 194 of the Constitution corresponds to the electoral stage and cannot be extended to the post-election phase.
“The election already ended on October 4. The restriction of article 194 of the Constitution, which is an electoral rule, is being applied in an analogous manner and that is prohibited in the Constitution, because article 139, paragraph 9, prohibits that,” he told El Comercio.
Tello considered that the candidates who were elected should be proclaimed directly as mayors and not as councilors.
He also questioned the decision of the JEE of Ica to proclaim the second councilor as mayor. “It’s a total outburst,” he said. In his opinion, that body acted against the law by adopting that measure.
