Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies is again discussing penalties for absent lawmakers after only eight of the 41 sessions held this year reached their conclusion. The other 33 were interrupted because of a lack of quorum, leaving bills unvoted.
Chamber President Raúl Latorre ordered the drafting of a proposal to amend the internal rules and make pay deductions effective. The measure had already been announced on August 11, but it has not yet produced sanctions. Daniel Centurión, leader of the Colorado Añetete caucus, said technicians had been tasked with drafting the changes.
“The concern is about the image that the Chamber of Deputies is projecting,” Centurión said. He said the aim was to increase the deductions and create a procedure allowing them to be applied in practice.
The rules provide for a deduction of 300,000 guaraníes for lateness and 600,000 guaraníes for an absence. At present, however, the penalty can be applied only after three consecutive or five nonconsecutive unjustified absences. In addition, an absence can be justified by telephone, including after the session, without requiring documents such as a medical certificate or formal leave.
Article 12 of the rules requires lawmakers to attend plenary and committee sessions. Article 20 establishes sanctions for unjustified and repeated absences, while Article 21 bars a lawmaker from leaving the chamber during a session without authorization when doing so could compromise the quorum. In practice, these rules have not prevented proceedings from being interrupted.
Lawmakers receive about 37.9 million guaraníes a month in salary and representation expenses. They also attend ordinary sessions only once a week and can participate in committee meetings remotely.
Official attendance figures are also disputed. A Chamber report showed 88.7% attendance between March and June, but it counts a lawmaker as present if they register their attendance at any point during the session. The quorum, however, must be maintained throughout the meeting. The discrepancy helps explain how a formal attendance rate can coexist with 81% of sessions left unfinished.
The difference also appears in committees. The Budget Committee recorded 34.1% attendance at 42 meetings between June 2025 and July 2026. The Constitutional Affairs Committee reported 67.1%, but held only eight meetings during the period and produced 28 opinions.
The completed sessions included decisions of interest to the Honor Colorado faction, led by former President Horacio Cartes, such as the reappointment of Camilo Benítez Aldana to the Comptroller General’s Office and the appointment of Armindo Torres as deputy comptroller. Sessions were also held to reappoint Latorre as Chamber president and to select representatives to the Jury for the Impeachment of Magistrates and the Council of the Magistracy. In some cases, the session lost its quorum after those items had been approved.