BARCELONA – FRIDAY, 13/03/2020
The President of the Chamber of Commerce, Joan Canadell. / EUROPE PRESS (DAVID ZORRAKINO)
The High Court of Justice of Catalunya (TSJC) has called into question the elections to the Catalan chambers, held last May. In these elections there was a majority victory of the independence candidacy promoted by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), which ended with Joan Canadell as president.
The judgment, appealable on an appeal to the TSJC itself, annuls the decree of the Conselleria d’Empresa, which made electronic voting a priority. The judgment is due to the complaint of a voter, the company Staff Pavillion.
The elections have already caused some controversy over discrepancies between the first results that were given and the final ones, which forced the ‘regional’ councilor of Enterprise, Angels Chacón, to give explanations. Catalan regulation also caused tensions with the central government.
According to Dolors Codina, the lawyer of the law firm Pou de Avilés, which runs the case, the fifth section of the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the TSJC, has understood that the Catalan governing rule “was not sufficiently transparent in its processing”.
In its judgment, the court states that the Generalitat omitted the process of citizen participation when it drew up the rule, which dates from July 2018, and considers that the reasons of urgency alleged by the Catalan administration are not acceptable.
Thus, it refers to the law of common administrative procedure of public administrations, establishes the procedure for the participation of citizens in the elaboration of rules with the rank of law and regulations, and provides for a consultation before the drafting of the text disposition.
“The Generalitat,” the judgment states, cannot justify the reasons of urgency for limiting citizens’ rights to the participation in the procedure for drawing up a rule provided in the article 69 of the Catalonia’s Transparency Act, when that urgency has in any case been provoked by the Administration itself.”
This resolution calls into question the results of the elections won by an absolute majority by the Eines de País candidacy, led by Joan Canadell, the current president of this organization. This candidacy was made with 32 of the 40 vocals of the Cambra of Barcelona, the most important cameral body of the 13 in Catalonia.
Eines de Pais prevailed against the lists of Enric Crous, Carles Tusquets and the 50X50 women’s platform in the elections that were carried out electronically, with two modalities, one in person and the other at a distance.
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