Citizens’ ability to be informed and engaged with their elected authorities requires tools that allow them to have accurate and updated information. New technologies and digitalization allow citizens to have quick, secure, and reliable access to information related to their representatives and their legislative work.
The International Republican Institute (IRI) and its Peruvian partners created InfocongresistasPeru to offer a virtual platform that consolidates crucial information developed by the Peruvian Congress and makes it easily accessible to citizens. The platform was created to promote citizen and journalistic oversight of parliamentary work, identify good practices, and highlight opportunities for improvement. In a polarized political environment such as Peru’s where information integrity is weak, it is necessary to have a simple source that concentrates official and truthful information. The data displayed in the platform derives from official sources such as Peru’s Congressional website, the representative’s CV, the National Office of Electoral Processes’ website (Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales, ONPE), as well as the Registry of Political Organizations of the National Election Jury (Jurado Nacionalde Elecciones, JNE).
Since 2021, this platform has been promoted and strengthened by IRI and a local partner, the Asociación Civil Transparencia (Transparency Civil Association, Transparencia), in alliance with other institutions that include Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos’ Open Politics and Electoral Systems and Political Parties Workshop of the. In recent programming, IRI integrated improvements to the website that enable better internal management of the platform, making it easier to update the information for natural developments such as removals, deaths and/or changes in congressional seats.
Whether from a cell phone, computer desktop, or any other digital device, InfocongresistasPeru allows users to find their congressmember’s declared positions on issues at the time of their candidacy, as well as the updated composition of Congress (such as number of representatives in each party and other breakdowns). Likewise, users have access to reports developed by Transparencia and graphs demonstrating the legislative work conducted by the Committee on the Constitution and Rules of Congress during the first legislative period of the current Congress (July 2021 to July 2022). The graphs offer quick snapshots that include the number of bills referred to the Commission and the number of majority and unanimous opinions generated by the Commission.
Some of the additional features provided by the platform are links to informative resources that better understand the work of Congress, as well as a blog that functions as a database of congressional articles organized by theme. Additionally, this virtual space houses periodic publications such as the Parliamentary Performance Observatory (Observatorio de Desempeño Parlamentario) and the Monitoring of the Agenda for Political and Electoral Reforms (Monitoreo De La Agenda De Reformas Política y Electorales), products also prepared by the Transparencia team.
This resource will be useful to journalists, researchers, and citizens in general to access updated information from the Congress of the Republic of Peru. IRI hopes citizens, journalists, and Congressmembers alike can take advantage of this digital resource to strengthen Peru’s democratic process, by increasing political transparency and encouraging greater accountability for elected officials.
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