Mayor of Lima, Peru impeached for serving on the board of state-owned company | Hacker News Reader

Mayor of Lima, Peru impeached for serving on the board of state-owned company

perureports.com

37 pointsconradegusa10 comments

In a press conference, Mr. Muñoz said that his dismissal by the electoral jury was “an attack against democracy.”

He also averred that he received the seat on the board subsequent to a water pipeline failure that impacted his mayoral constituency, but it's hard to see how you can reliably discharge two fiduciary obligations with conflicting interests. Term positions are mini monopolies and being able to stack them seems like a bad idea.

> an attack against democracy

This reminds that when Judge Aaron Persky was recalled, some rejected it because Persky had been elected. Well, that's what a recall is, folks. And in this case, that's what impeachment is. There are rare cases where an elected official is removed, but that doesn't invalidate the democracy, unless something more is going on. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Persky

It's not a binary invalidation, but the recent California Governor recall is an example of how they can be used to (attempt) to undermine democracy. It's not meant to be a follow-up election for the people who are more likely to vote (can take time off work). Recalls are great for when something happens that makes the electorate change their mind. In California's case, they were starting recall petitions from day 1.

Democracy is a popularity contest. That's what it is. Elect implies popularity. People choose you because they want you to do that job. You can ask them to choose you. And they can like you for whatever reason they please, they can like you because you're smart, or stupid (see Victor Hugo), any reason they want. It comes down to freedom, they're free to decide not only between A and B but with whatever rubric they like the best.

For instance I only vote for candidates if they are heavily slandered. If both candidates, presidential candidates, have a perfect clean slate, neither has had any mud slung on them? Unthinkable. Still vote. Write "Count my vote void."

If the public official had been on the board of a private company, would that have been okay? The article seems to suggest that 'state-owned' is a key factor in this scenario. That's a bit of a head scratcher to me, but I definitely don't know much about Peruvian politics.

Also, a bit concerning:

> On April 28, Mr. Muñoz released phone recordings which allegedly show unknown third parties requesting he pay USD $80,000 to reverse the JNE decision. “I was asked for money. They told me, ‘If you give an amount of money, we will reverse the ruling.’ I told them that I am an honest person,” he said on the television program Al Estilo Juliana.

In the UK most of the Tory MPs at least are on the boards of private companies.

(I can't talk for the Tory supporters but those of us who aren't find it pretty corrupt).

I can't speak for Tories (or other people in the UK), but there may be a difference between government legislators and government executives. Executives have certain obligations, and being an executive in two (potentially conflicting) organizations may be more 'hazardous' or 'conflicting' than being a legislator in the government and an executive in a private capacity. As an example, it seems common for many city councilors to run businesses, but it could be seen as more problematic for a mayor to do so.

That's what I don't understand as well.

Where is the conflict of interest in the case of the mayor of Lima? Why is there such a rule against that?

Surprised this news reached Hacker News. The major was kind of lazy. We used to joke we didn't have a mayor. In summary, he won't be missed.

I am Peruvian and keep up to date with Peruvian politics. A lot of the political. moves right now center around Socialist (Maduro kind) and Conservative views but I can't figure out which party this scandal benefits. I do know that the JNE allowed a Socialist to win an election with fraud. Maybe the JNE is trying to clean up its image.

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