Costa Rica President Calls For A Referendum & Announces A Mystery "Super Distinguished Citizen" Will Appear Today 2pm To Request The Initiative.

The Jaguar Law by the president intends for the country to decide on public affairs and bypass corruption in government by reforming Organic Law of the Comptroller General of the Republic.

On the morning of this Wednesday, June 5, the President of the Republic, Rodrigo Chaves, arrived at the Legislative Assembly to present the "Jaguar Law to promote Costa Rica." This project proposes calling a referendum.

Watch with subtitles on Youtube:

"I come to present the Jaguar Law to Congress to promote the development of Costa Rica, that has two references for the referendum to be carried out," said the president.

Chaves expressed that he will give the deputies a "chance" to approve this law, as he promised them on May 2.

"I am a man of my word, I told them that I was going to give them the chance, here I am to see if 29 of them think differently or hopefully more," said Chaves.

In addition, he revealed that a "distinguished citizen" will appear at the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to request the initiative.

"This afternoon, at 2:00 p.m., a super distinguished citizen will appear at the Supreme Court of Elections (TSE), to request by popular initiative authorization to collect signatures," said the president.

What is needed for Costa Rica to go to a referendum?

Chaves explained that the referendum can be held through two routes, the first is the approval of at least 29 deputies.

"There are two ways for there to be a confiscation, what they call a referendum electoral event,

• the first is for 29 of the deputies to reject the claims that this Legislative Assembly is not fertile ground for democracy," said Chaves.

• On the other hand, it can also be called if the people manage to collect the necessary signatures.

"Here two clocks begin to tick, that of the Legislative Assembly, which can say, yes please, Tribunal, organize the referendum by 29 votes of deputies or the people once the Supreme Electoral Tribunal gives the permission to collect the signatures. We began to move as a people, as a citizen I am going to sign without a doubt to collect approximately 180 thousand signatures," explained the President of the Republic.

What is the Jaguar Law?

The first Article aims to reform article 4, section D, of the Organic Law of the Comptroller General of the Republic, Law No. 7428.

“Article 4.- Scope of its Competence. The Comptroller General of the Republic will exercise its jurisdiction over all the entities and bodies that make up the Public Treasury. This same jurisdiction exists over: (...) d) The joint and minority participations of the State or other public entities or bodies, in commercial companies, national or foreign, in accordance with this Law.", reads the Jaguar Law.

That is, with this law, the president intends for the country to decide on public affairs.

"We turn to the People of Costa Rica so that, as the maximum expression of the popular will in democracy, as enshrined in our Political Constitution, they speak out and decide on matters of public order that directly affect the possibility of the Government and other institutions of the State to develop fundamental infrastructure works," the bill document read.

This news comes on the heels of accusations by our President questioning if our Legislative Assembly is tying his hands and working for private interests. Essentially Costa Rica is questioning if our Legislative Assembly of 57 people are mostly corrupt, rigged & not responsive to the wants of the people…. should REFORMS be made?

IOJ will post again after this afternoon, at 2:00 p.m., when the mystery “super distinguished citizen” will appear at the Supreme Court of Elections (TSE), to request by popular initiative authorization to collect signatures, and after we look more into exactly what the President wants to change.

We presume this is a good thing, but need to triple check exactly what powers the President want to limit with the Comptroller, to give that power to the people…

The Comptroller has a lot of power for good reason and IOJ would not want to stop them from being able to investigate, and of course we also want to empower the peoples voice and wishes to have legal backing. Looks like President Chaves agrees.