The Senate of Argentina has initiated the process to fill more than 300 vacant positions for magistrates in various prosecutor's offices, public defender's offices, and courts across the country. This is one of the goals set by the Ministry of Justice under the leadership of Juan Bautista Mahiques. The Executive branch has submitted over 52 slates of candidates for these positions. The slates will be submitted to the upper house in batches, as revealed by the head of the judicial portfolio, and must pass through the Agreements Commission, chaired by Juan Carlos Pagotto from the province of La Rioja. The vacant positions are in the jurisdictions of criminal, criminal economic, civil, commercial, administrative, and social security law. The slates of candidates for the positions of president, vice president, and board members of ENARGAS were also included, with the proposal to renew the mandate of the current interim administrator, Néstor Laboglia, as vice president, replacing Vicente Serra. According to parliamentary sources from the ruling coalition, the idea is to "step on the accelerator" to speed up deadlines and meet the government's expectations of resolving the matter as soon as possible. However, the validation of this batch of slates will not occur this shortened week due to Carnival holidays, as there is not enough time. It is speculated that a dozen additional slates will be submitted in the coming days to complete the first batch of 62 candidacies. In the session on March 18, the Senate validated a reform of its internal regulations to regulate the publicity of the slates sent by the Government for the appointment of judges, associate justices of the Supreme Court of Justice, magistrates of the Judicial Branch, and the Public Ministry. This amendment provides that the slates of candidates for these positions must be published for two days with a prior notice period of no less than fifteen consecutive days before the public hearing. The publication of the slates must be available on the official website, social networks, and the Official Gazette of the Senate. Meanwhile, if the positions pertain to jurisdictions other than the City of Buenos Aires, information on the slates must be communicated to the provincial legislative powers, which in turn must publicize them.
