Spain's Central Electoral Commission has this Friday denied ERC's petition for its president, Oriol Junqueras, to be allowed to stand in Sunday's Spanish general election.
The party presented an appeal yesterday based on the Supreme Court's decision to suspend his ban from public office, waiting for a response from the Court of Justice of the European Union on a question relating to parliamentary immunity. They argue that he should therefore be eligible to stand and that the Commission was premature in ordering the party to remove him from its list of candidates.
The Commission has given two reasons for its rejection of the petition. The first is that his sentence to 13 years in prison is final and not suspended, which already makes him illegible to stand as a candidate for election under Spanish law.
The second is that they believe the proclamation of lists of candidates for the 10th November to be a "firm act, which cannot be revised at this time by the Central Electoral Commission."
Defence counsel representing Junqueras is now waiting for the Supreme Court to decide on its appeal for his release. They argue that if the enforcement of his ban from public office is suspended, his prison term should be too. The decision won't come for at least three days, as that's how long the judges have given the parties involved to submit arguments.