the Supreme Court decided by a 6-2 majority to reject the certification order presented by the mayor of Sant Joan, Miguel Romero, To uphold and dismiss the appeal against the election of part of the candidate of the Citizen Victory Movement, Manuel Natal.
Romero, of the New Progressive Party, Sought that the highest forum determine that Natal had breached the terms of the Electoral Code for the corresponding location and, thus, dismissed without going into the merits the challenge submitted on 14 January.
“In the application for intra-jurisdictional certification and in the Urgent Motion to stop the proceedings before the Court of First Instance filed by the petitioner Miguel A. Romero Lugo, it is provided that both are not relevant,” the Supreme Court ruling dictates.
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Natal, who publicly pointed out Romaní to “hide” to avoid being summoned, has stated that he complied with all the corresponding procedural formalities so that the case is dealt with on its merits.
The case of appeal is dealt with in the Court of Sant Joan by the judge Anthony Cuevas.
In the Supreme Court ruling, the associate judge Edgardo Rivera García he uttered a dissenting expression, to which the judge joined Mildred Pabón Charneco.
“I consider that in view of the importance of this matter and the public interest pervading the controversy before us, as well as the approach to the lack of jurisdiction, I would have provided Ha Lloc i. Certificate the same. Although we certainly recognize that the controversy is I consider that this is a matter that deserves urgent because it is imperative that this Court act to give certainty to the process that affects the civil servants certified by the State Commission of Elections and that already are exerting functions in the positions for which they were elect “, has expressed Rivera Garci’a.
Natal’s challenge, in summary, argues that there are 6,593 municipal ballots for early and absent “illegal” voting, either because the number exceeds the total number of voters in these modalities, because they do not have a treatment evidenced in the acts or because they did not have of the typical duplicity of the ballots that are inserted in an envelope.
Natal lost the election by 3,465 votes, with unit 77 – where most of the advanced voting mechanisms are counted in each precinct – decisive in the result. The former representative requested, as a remedy, a new election among the voters of this unit.
Barranquitas candidate gives up
In the other hand, Luis Daniel Colom Sants, Who aspired to the mayorship of Barranquitas by Democratic People’s Party, Gave up the challenge he had filed against the winner of the election, the neo-progressive Elliot Colom Blanc.
“In view of the Motion on Notice of Withdrawal filed by the plaintiff, this Court the Declaration Has Place. Consequently a Judgment of Withdrawal is issued,” Judge Cuevas’ judgment states.
According to the portal of the State Election Commission, White Columbus retained the barranquiteña mayorship by 165 votes on Holy Columbus.