Luis Alberto Palomino brought his campaign to San Juan for one of the seats representing lawyers on Argentina's Council of the Magistracy. The Abogacía por la Libertad candidate met professionals and local figures ahead of the election scheduled for 20 October.
His central theme was discretion in competitions for judicial posts. Palomino argued that technical stages can lose weight compared with personal interviews and proposed a common evaluation matrix. He wants every criterion to have a known value and differences in scores to receive an explicit explanation.
The proposal covers uniform rules for credentials, examinations, professional record and interviews. According to the candidate, a public grid would make decisions comparable and reduce the influence of undeclared preferences. It would not remove assessments of suitability, but it would require an explanation of how each element becomes part of the final result.
Palomino also criticised what he described as judicial-system insularity. He said professionals with experience outside the courts should have a real opportunity to become judges and competitions should not automatically favour current insiders. The approach seeks broader competition but requires rules capable of valuing different career paths fairly.
During the visit, he also discussed the Council's operation, the majorities required to submit shortlists and the Supreme Court's role in the institutional design. His remarks combined criticism of the present mechanism with support for predictable procedures. He offered principles to promote if elected rather than a closed package of legislative amendments.
The event was held at La Libertad Avanza's San Juan headquarters and included lawyers, professionals and party figures. That political setting is part of the list's identity, but the seat represents the legal profession within a constitutional body. The proposals must therefore be assessed by their effect on competitions, transparency and institutional balance.
The 20 October vote will decide who carries those positions into the Council. Palomino must compete with other lists and persuade registered lawyers that his evaluation tools are useful. The campaign itself changes no rules: any reform would depend on agreements in the body, applicable regulations and, in some cases, legislation.
The immediate next step is the election, followed by the elected representative joining the Council's work. If the plan moves forward, it would need a public grid, review procedures and accessible reasons for each competition. The debate opened in San Juan concerns how to combine technical assessment, personal interview and control of discretion without replacing one form of arbitrariness with another.
