Supreme order counts all the votes of the candidate by direct nomination in Guánica

the Supreme Court concurred this afternoon with the determination of the Court of First Instance of San Juan that found that the votes by direct nomination for the candidate to the mayorship of Guánica by direct nomination, Edgardo Cruz Vélez had to be counted, although l the voter has not written his name correctly or has not marked the box intended for direct nomination.

The determination of the highest judicial forum on the island assumes that the State Election Commission (CEE) will have to verify all the acts of the electoral contest of Guánica to determine that how many additional votes has Vélez Cross by direct nomination even if the voter has not placed an X in the box of direct nomination.

The EEC reported that this Thursday at 9:00 am the parties must convene their respective officials to make a count of the electoral contest of Guánica.

In the contest for the mayor of Guánica, the EEC had certified the candidate of the Democratic People’s Party, Ismael “Titi” Rodriguez, as the winner by only 52 votes. Precisely, yesterday Rodríguez swore in his office after finishing the transition process with the incumbent mayor, Sants Seda. Rodriguez was sworn into office despite the Supreme Court’s determination not yet.

The decision of the Supreme Court was seven associate judges in favor and one against, Judge Rafael Martínez Torres.

“In the cases before our consideration it clearly emerges from the ballot that the voter wanted to vote by direct nomination. In no way can it be said that we replace the voter’s criterion, when what we do is award the vote to in favor of the person this voter wrote on the ballot “, Says the Supreme Court ruling, written by Associate Judge Erick Kolthoff.

Associate Judges Maite Oronoz, Luis Estrella and Mildred Pabón Charneco issued an opinion on compliance. While Associate Judge Angel Colom Perez issued a concurrent opinion.

The legal appeal seen by the Supreme Court was filed by Rodriguez, who asked for a decision of Judge Anthony Cuevas to be annulled, who decided that the EEC had awarded Edgardo Cruz Vélez, candidate for mayor of Guánica by direct nomination , the votes cast in his favor, although the voter did not mark with an X on the ballot the rectangle of the box corresponding to direct nomination.

Rodriguez, in this way, questioned in the appeal that was initially presented to the Court of First Instance and exceptionally was accepted by the Supreme Court without going through the Appeal.

Rodriguez argued in his legal appeal that a direct nomination vote was valid only if it had the full name and valid mark in the corresponding box. This considering that that voter who interacted with an electronic ballot machine was warned that to him not to mark the box of direct nomination, his ballot was badly voted.

“What the petitioner is suggesting is that this Curia venture to interpret, not the voter’s ballot paper which is to which the doctrine of the voter’s intention is limited, but his intention in interacting with the machine. As we have said, there may be many reasons why a voter might ignore the warning that the electronic ballot machine allegedly gives him of an alleged deficiency in his vote. transcendental is what he finally expressed on the ballot, ”indicates the Supreme Court’s determination.