Puerto Rico hearing considers bill to allow proxy voting in cooperatives; regulator supports safeguards, federation urges discretion

Representative Cristian Muriel, presiding over the Commission on Cooperativism, opened a public hearing on Proyecto de la Cámara 774 to consider amending Article 5.04 of Ley 255-2002 to authorize voting by proxy in cooperative assemblies.

COSEC (Corporación Pública para la Supervisión y Seguro de Cooperativas de Puerto Rico) presented first. Mabel Jiménez Miranda, COSEC’s executive president, told the commission that COSEC supports the bill "porque... autorizar el voto por poder en las asambleas de socios, delegados y distritos sujeto a los controles y procedimientos establecidos en el reglamento general de cada cooperativa". She argued that factors such as distance, health, advanced age, work commitments and emergencies have prevented many members from participating in person and that proxy or delegated…