Spain’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) to review the more than 30,000 zero votes counted in Madrid in July 23 parliamentary elections.
In the opinion of the judges at the highest judicial level in Spain, the requirements of the doctrine were not met, nor were data provided to justify the relevance of the recount to the outcome of the vote.
“The mere numerical difference in the results invoked in this case (1,200 votes) is not a sufficient basis for the revision,” said the Supreme Court in rejecting the appeal of the Socialists, against the criteria of the prosecution. .
According to the Supreme “logic elements, arithmetic or credible statistical calculations that make it possible to verify, even hypothetically, the relevance of the revision of the vote in the final result and in the award of the controversial parliamentary seat”, the number 16, won by the Popular Party (PP, right) instead of the PSOE.
After the polling process was completed and votes counted abroad, one more parliamentary seat was confirmed for the PP (137 in total) in the parliamentary elections, winning the popular deputy number 16 for Madrid, trailing the PSOE with 121 (one less than the initial count).
It was then that the Socialists appealed to both the Provincial Electoral Council of Madrid and the Central Electoral Council to review the validity of all zero votes in the constituency of the Spanish capital.
After rejection by both bodies, the PSOE appealed to the Supreme Court, which now also rejected its request in a sentence that is still subject to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
In that resolution, the Supreme Court judges state that it is not possible to allow the recount of the votes “preemptively”, in the event that “some error of judgment of the zero vote is favorable” to the socialists.
The Supreme Court was particularly critical of the PSOE’s argument, shared by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, about the lack of technical-legal knowledge of the citizens who were part of the polling stations about the nullity of votes, an allegation that – underlines the verdict – ” seems to ignore the pillars on which the electoral process rests”.
Because the electoral law, the judges explained, is “based on the principle of democratic participation and citizen intervention” in the process, “it is irrelevant” the aspect the PSOE questions, adding that the assessment of its validity or nullity of the vote “is not a complicated legal operation”, but it is carried out “in the public act of control” and communicated to the other members, to the representatives of the voters and to the representatives of the candidacies.
The Supreme also recalls the presence of representatives and representatives of the parties at that time, who “ensure a correct analysis of the vote and who have the capacity to protest”, so that “the work assigned to citizens by law in the electoral process”.
Moreover, it cannot be accepted before that court that the mere adjustment of the result requires the inspection or proof of the performance of each electoral council, without there being an irregularity or defect in the process which could lead to the lack of a correlation between the will of the citizens and the end result.
On Tuesday, the King of Spain, Felipe VI, nominated the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as a candidate for prime minister, following the July 23 elections. Parliament is now voting on the inauguration.
The investiture debate and the session of Feijóo are scheduled for September 26 and 27.
The PP was the political force with the most votes in July’s elections, but without an absolute majority in parliament.
Source: DN
