The judge’s sentence Anthony Cuevas which granted representation to the plenary of the State Election Commission (EEC) at the Puerto Rican Independentist Party (PIP), Citizen Victory Movement (MVC) i Dignity project would seem to come final and firm, every time the New Progressive Party (PNP) would follow in the footsteps of the president of the body, Francisco Rosado Colomer, And would refrain from raising the controversy on appeal.
The alternate commissioner of La Palma, Vanessa Santo Domingo, Claimed to be satisfied with the fact that Cuevas did not declare unconstitutional the parts of the Electoral code relevant to the rights of the parties, but stipulated that, after the results of the last elections, they should apply the principles of the previous law.
“We are satisfied that the parties will retain their electoral franchise and participate fully in the Commission. It is something that the governor already (Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia) He had expressed it clearly. Beyond that, part of our satisfaction with the ruling is that it does not determine that the Electoral Code is unconstitutional, it was simply a matter of how the withholding of these franchises was applied in the face of the next election cycle. The reality is that the president of the EEC had to apply how electoral franchises were withheld in accordance with the Electoral Code 2020, and this process in court had to be given in one way or another, “he said. Santo Domingo.
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The electoral law in force since 2011 provided that all parties that obtained their automatic re-registration in the general elections would retain their representation before the EEC. However, the new Code stipulates that the plenary of the EEC will be composed of between two and three parties, a provision that Cuevas decided will only be able to enter into force from 2024.
In their arguments at the administrative and judicial level, both the PNP and the EEC alluded to the cost that would mean the representation of the five parties in the body as a reasonable reason to prevent the PIP, MVC and Dignity Project from having “proprietary” election commissioners.
According to Rosado Colomer, the annual cost per game is $ 1.2 million.
“We are concerned and it was one of the approaches we took before the court. We understood that the court did not consider, or did not give enough importance to the fiscal crisis that we are experiencing in all government agencies, that it has been necessary to make some cuts.. However, we must take budgetary measures or request that our budget be increased in order to be able to comply, “Santo Domingo said.
The alternate commissioner, on the other hand, hinted that the position of the PNP is that the PIP be recognized as the “third party” of the EEC, instead of the MVC, which came in third place in the candidacy for government and in the number of full votes on the state ballot.
“These parties would have the same rights they had in 2019 and 2020 when they signed up. They are no more, they are no less. They are the ones they had at the time,” the lawyer said.
Should the third party be the PIP or MVC ?, he asked Subway.
“We understand that any determination must be made in accordance with the 2020 Electoral Code and it is a controversy that both parties, both the PIP and the MVC, will have to take to the full Commission and make the determination in their “Our position is that the third party must be one that meets the requirements set out in the Electoral Code in order to be considered as such,” Santo Domingo stressed.
Of the three “state parties,” only the PIP met the requirement of the new law to nominate candidates for mayor and municipal legislatures in at least 39 of the 78 municipalities.
However, both the MVC and the Dignity Project have argued that the requirement was impossible to meet, because the Electoral Code became law months after the closing date for nominations.
One issue that remains to be resolved would be whether the third party would have representation in the Permanent Registration Boards, Since the electoral law reduced from three to two the number of collectivities that constitute the institutional balance in these spaces.