The saga of the election for mayor of Guánica came to an end after the opinion of the Court of Appeal, Which he kept in Ismael “Titi” Rodríguez Ramos, From’ Democratic People’s Party, As a municipal executive, prevailed in the Supreme Court with a 4-4 draw.
On March 3, a panel of the Court of Appeals upheld the determination of the Court of First Instance which, in summary, concluded that the State Election Commission (EEC), After a count he conducted between 14 and 15 January, he joined the aspirant by direct nomination Edgardo Creu Vélez 38 votes that had already been awarded to him previously.
Creu Vélez, in the appeals she filed in both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, argued that the superior judge Rebecca De Leon Rius he erred in resolving by summary judgment the allegation of Rodríguez Ramos that, on the basis of the acts of the EEC, the duplicity in the count of the 38 ballots was unequivocally revealed.
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However, the group of four judges who favored the opinion of the Appeal concluded that there were no controversies of facts that prevented Judge D’Lleó Rius from resolving on the basis of the evidence before her consideration.
“While there was no hearing as such, the truth is that the parties had the opportunity to present to the court all the evidence that was in their power to prove their allegations, some parties others did not, “expresses the opinion of conformity issued by the associate judge Angel Colom Perez, To which the magistrates joined Rafael Martínez Torres, Roberto Feliberti Cintrón and the presiding judge, Maite Oronoz Rodríguez.
“While it could be suspicious to the President of the EEC that the acts denounced – and discussed during the morning of January 15, 2021 – were allegedly not in the corresponding briefcase, we find it more alarming that all the evidence from which it follows – as shown in the annexes to which the determinations of facts of primary forum allude – that these votes had already been counted, awarded and added to the Preliminary Report of 21 December 2021, ”the writ adds.
The possibility of a tie in the Supreme Court has been a constant since the retirement, on December 24, of the judge Anabelle Rodríguez Rodríguez, The vacancy has not yet been filled by the governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia.
Late last year, the former governor Wanda Vazquez nominate the Judge of Appeals Maritere Brignoni for the chair in the Supreme Court, but withdrew the designation when the Senate the neo-progressive majority was in a hurry to defeat the appointment.
In a dissenting opinion of the associate judge Luis Estrella Martínez, Subscribed by colleagues Mildred Pabón Charneco i Erick Kolthoff Caraballo, It is argued that “as the ultimate guarantors of public confidence in democracy, this Court had a duty to promote the categorical answer to this question, which could only be achieved if we revoked the opinion of the Court of First Instance to slightly dispose of this controversy by summary judgment. “
By upholding the rulings of the primary forum and the Appeal and denying an evidentiary hearing, Estrella Martínez expressed, the Supreme Court gave “primacy to a series of incomplete tables and acts over the will of the electorate.”
“Today, the cut was in favor of rigorism and formalism mortally wounded him in democracy in Guánica. This, therefore, is undoubtedly the resolution of almost all cars by summary judgment, as question of law, it did not proceed in favor of Mr. Rodríguez Ramos and did not represent an adequate balance between the fair disposition of this controversy and the right of the challenging party to have its day in court “, added Estrella Martínez.
The Associate Judge Edgardo Rivera García he also disagreed with the final judgment and expressed that “he would have issued the appeal and ruled that a hearing on the merits should be held before the Court of First Instance.”
By subtracting the 38 votes from Cruz Vélez, Rodríguez Ramos prevailed with 2,384 votes, by an advantage of just 11 over the ex-military. The count that was held in January, and which at that time granted him the advantage, was the product of a previous ruling of the Supreme Court which ruled that Creu Vélez had been awarded votes even if the voter had not marked the box that accompanies the direct nomination column.