The Second Room The Constitutional Court has unanimously rejected this Tuesday the PSOE’s appeal for electoral protection due to the counting of null votes in Madrid behind the 23-J.
According to legal sources, THE WORLD, The members of the court of guarantees have thus approved the judge’s presentation Laura Diezprofessor of Constitutional Law and former senior official of Moncloawhich was in favor of rejecting the claims of the socialists, considering that there is no unconditional right to proceed with this new recount of votes since there is no evidence of irregularity or infringement of the fundamental right invoked.
The approved ruling also refers to other principles at play in this specific case that prevail, such as the preservation of validly held electoral acts and the presumption of validity of the acts of the electoral boards. Upon joint consideration of both principles, the Second Chamber affirms that the General Electoral Regime Law does not provide within the ordinary counting system a specific right to request a review of invalid votes and, considering that an unconditional right could lead to a generalized demand for a recount of votes, this recount would become de facto ordinary despite not being provided for in the Organic Law as part of the electoral system designed therein.
In short, the High Court understands that there is no unconditional right, based on the mere expressed will of the appellants, to the Electoral Boards review the votes declared null and void and not protested.
The Chamber concludes that “whoever requests the review of the null votes is obliged to base his request on the denunciation of irregularities during the electoral process. And, although it is not reasonable to demand in these cases full proof of the alleged irregularity (… ) yes, at least indications of these must be invoked”. Therefore, the use of the review or control mechanisms of the acts of the electoral procedure is conditional on the legitimate subject who intends to request them to comply with this minimum allegation burden.