The Government of Peru on Monday filed a competence claim and a precautionary measure before the Constitutional Court (TC) in response to the impeachment motion against President Martin Vizcarra, which was submitted and approved by Congress.
State Attorney for Constitutional Issues Luis Huerta was in charge of filing both appeals before the highest judicial body in the country.
Huerta explained that the claim is institutional because it seeks a legal ruling from the TC on a fundamental issue for the governance of the country.
He went on to say that such analysis will be useful for all governments from now on, so that they can work during the term of five years for which they were elected without the threat of a wrongful use of the vacancy due to an arbitrary presumption of permanent moral incapacity.
According to the State Attorney, together with the competence claim, the Ministry of Justice has filed a precautionary measure before the Court in order to suspend the procedure of the impeachment motion in Congress.
He noted that the competence claim states that the vacancy is being used as a political control mechanism against the Executive Branch. However, that is not the purpose or the basis stated in Article 113 of the Constitution.
"Our goal is for the highest organization, in charge of interpreting the Constitution, to be the one that determines how the cause for permanent moral incapacity should be interpreted, as it is wrongly and unconstitutionally imputed to the president," she expressed.
The Cabinet member said that the administration's purpose is to establish a legal strategy to prove that the way —in which Congress is interpreting the cause of moral incapacity for the impeachment— is not compatible with the country's system of government, affects the powers of the Executive Branch, and undermines the constitutional order.
(END) CVC/RMB
Published: 9/14/2020