A ruling from the Constitutional Court stated that there were unconstitutional flaws in the Animal Welfare Act. As consecuence, it puts at risk the continuity of the process to call a referendum against animal abuse.
Legislators Otto Guevara, Ronny Monge and Juan Marin think that judges from the Constitutional Court’s resolution practically force the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) to stop the referendum process.
According to judges, the bill to call a referendum is almost identical to the rules the Constitutional Court rejected from the Animal Welfare Act.
The Constitutional Court declared that the Animal Welfare Act is unconstitutional because there are not proportions on the penalties included in the regulation.
The rejected rule was passed after a group of activists and citizens started collecting signatures for the TSE to convoke a referendum requiring Congress to pass a text against animal abuse quite similar to the approved law, which establishes 3-year prison sentences for those people who kill an animal.