The impasse was resolved in the budget committee yesterday, but with a move by Vamos demanding a position for minorities, in this case the Moka party.
After hours of debate, the ruling RM party agreed to give the Moca post to Rep. Ernesto Cedeño.
What a surprise for the other parties, when Vamos dismissed Cedeño from office and appointed one of his own seats, leaving the minorities they claimed to fight for unrepresented.
After 13 days of talks between the different groups, long breaks, and with a permanent session open since last Thursday, the National Assembly plenary finally approved the budget committee.
Yesterday's session began after 2 p.m., and in an attempt to resume debate, a recess was declared almost immediately because there was still no consensus on who would be the 15th member of this committee.
The break lasted more than four hours, and finally white smoke rose. The Secretary General of the Assembly, Carlos Alvarado, at the request of the President of the Assembly, Dana Castaneda, read the current proposal on the table regarding the formation of this committee.
Just minutes before the deputies who will form this body were read out, the president of the Achievement of Goals party group, Alan Cedeño, announced that his group, which has three seats, would give up a seat to deputy Ernesto Cedeño, of the Otro Camino Movement (MOCA), to respect the rights of minorities.
But when Alvarado read the names of the budget commissioners, the name of Ernesto Cedeño was not there, but the figure of Rep. Jonathan Vega, from the Vamos seat, entered the scene, with which this seat was able to get the five members of this commission.
Although Vamos, through its chairperson Janine Prado, has called in recent weeks for a single seat to be allocated to Moca, while respecting the rights of minorities, as stipulated in the association's bylaws, in this case no Moca member entered the unanimous list approved by Vamos.
MP Roberto Zúñiga, of Vamos, said the position allocated to Vega is the fifth proposed by his party since the first day of the talks.
“We were clear in all the conversations that this last position belonged to Jonathan Vega and that is what we expected, and we did not want to give up, because we were following what was stated in the internal regulations of the National Assembly,” he said.
When consulted, Deputy Ernesto Cedeño limited himself to stating that “it is better not to talk about it.”
