Parliament rejects the new traffic law

There has been a lot of grumbling about this law, and it is not surprising that the parliament decided to reject it out of hand. The discussions on the issue in the parliament centered on the constitutionality of how it was passed, the level of fines, giving policemen a cut of the fines, and the definition of what a “driver” is (it classified sheepherders as drivers).

Anyway, the legislation is now in the senate, where they may either uphold the rejection, modify the law, ratify the legislation (in which case it has to be sent back to the lower house) or shelve the issue, in which case the law will stay in force as a temporary law. Some legislators worried that this is what the senate might do. When the lower house rejected the income tax law almost two years ago, it looked like the senate wanted to keep the law enforced by not taking up the issue. Pressure from the press and the people forced them to eventually reject the legislation. Abdlkarim Kabariti, who spearheaded the rejection in the senate, was rewarded by not being re appointed in the current makeup.

This time it looks like the senate will have to deal with this issue promptly. In an extraordinary move, the head of the PSD (police) has issued orders not to enforce the law until the parliament ratifies it. So, the law is on the books but the police are refusing to enforce it.

Anyway, there is a whole suite of problems related to the traffic situation in the country. These include poor pedestrian behavior (on whom there is no legal burden to take care of him/her self), lax enforcement of existing legislation, forgiving social attitudes towards reckless drivers and bad roads. Any serious attempt to improve the traffic situation should take all of these factors into account. Poor driving should not turn into just another cash cow for the government.