Global Courant 2023-05-23 16:00:55
The Cambio party, founded by the sons of Manuel Baldizón, filed an amparo action before the Sixth Chamber of the Contentious-Administrative Court against the Registry of Citizens (RC) for the resolution of December 12, 2022, which endorses the second National Assembly of the Citizen Prosperity party (PC).
The Cambió group points out that in the PC assembly there was a violation of four articles of the Electoral Law and Political Parties (Lepp) which are article 203: Of the representation of minorities, article 26, subsection C: Attributions of the National Assembly; Article 28 of the LEPP: Election of the National Executive Committee and Article 31 TER of the Lepp regulation: Representation of minorities.
Last Friday, May 19, the Sixth Chamber granted the provisional protection in favor of Cambio, which resulted in the suspension of PC candidacies. A day later, the affected party and Carlos Pineda each filed an appeal to seek to suspend the temporary resolution of said Chamber.
The constitutional lawyer Édgar Ortiz gave an interview to Prensa Libre explaining the legal scope of the context and that the remaining time for the elections and for the Constitutional Court (CC) to resolve the appeal is decisive for the participation of those who were proclaimed as candidates.
What causes the provisional protection in favor of Cambio to have been granted?
The result is that it is annulled, and we have already seen that the RC resolved it today, annuls the National Assembly of the Citizen Prosperity party, which was held in November of last year through which it elected its National Executive Committee.
Point number two, when the November assembly is annulled, as a consequence, the February assembly of this year, in which candidates were proclaimed, is also annulled; the February assemblies between which candidacies are proclaimed fall, then the registration of all candidates at the national level of the PC party is suspended as effect number two.
What is the due process that led to the resolution of PC’s candidacies?
The assemblies of the parties are registered by the RC, the valid ones so to speak; So, what Cambio questioned was that endorsement, that registration made by the RC of that November assembly, and the only thing the Amparo Court did was order the suspension of that registration.
The process is relatively short, because there is not yet a sentence, what there is is a provisional amparo, which is as it were, an emergency or urgency measure through which it is left in abeyance, but the amparo will continue its course and in judgment it could be favorable to the Change party or unfavorable. That is still pending to be resolved.
What corresponds to the Constitutional Court, taking into account the time limits of the electoral process?
You have to understand two things, one is the course that the term itself takes, that this takes time, there is no way, as much as the Courts want to be diligent, there are deadlines that must be respected. The amparo is filed, the parties are heard, the evidence is presented, there is a normal course that cannot be resolved in two days either.
Now, what PC appealed is the provisional amparo, that is, it is like a decision that is issued within the amparo that was granted in this case, and it is what is annulling the registration of the candidacies. What is being appealed at this moment is the provisional amparo so that the only thing that the CC is going to decide in the next few days, I would say, is whether to leave this provisional amparo in force or not. If he revoked that provisional protection, the party could participate, but if he does not revoke it, the party is out. From now until the amparo is resolved, the elections will have already passed and, then, it will not be possible to participate.
The Amparo Law says that there are 36 hours to resolve the provisional amparo appeal, I would assume that the CC is going to rule before March 25 on the provisional amparo, which in this case is the most relevant because it is what defines whether or not it is on the ballots Citizen Prosperity.
In a hypothetical case where the CC resolved the Citizen Prosperity appeal, but the elections had already passed, what would correspond?
In that case, that in August they said that Cambio was not right but PC, the elections are not repeated, the protection simply runs out of matter. There is no longer a controversy to resolve, because the moment of the grievance would be not participating in the elections, and the elections are over, there would be nothing to do, there would be no positive effect.”.
In what way or legal channel did Cambio obtain access to verify the irregularities that are argued in the amparo?
Assemblies should be public, because political parties are public law entities, so one can request access to information, for example, a copy of those assemblies. So, I suppose, that by some information request mechanism they were able to access the minutes, for example.
That the provisional amparo was granted did merit that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal suspend the candidacies?
Yes, because what you are saying is that the November assembly be suspended, then, logically, if the November assembly does not exist because the Amparo Tribunal annulled it, everything that has been done subsequently is also annulled.. The suspension of the November assembly means that the party could not have called assemblies in February. as a logical consequence. If the November assembly falls, subsequent assemblies are automatically invalidated, which is where candidates are elected. So I think that the RC had no choice but to assume the logical consequences of what the Court of Amparo is ordering.
