Once again, Spain's Central Electoral Commission (JEC, in its Spanish acronym) has a hot potato on its table connected to a pro-independence politician. After the sentence of the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) against Laura Borràs for abuse of authority and document falsification, the parties of the Spanish right, PP, Vox and Ciudadanos have sent the judgment to the JEC demanding that it order the Catalan Parliament to strip her of her seat. Sources from the body that regulates electoral processes confirm to ElNacional.cat that they already have the Borràs case in hand, although they assure that it will "certainly" be resolved after Easter. Now, the precedents of former president Quim Torra and ex-deputy Pau Juvillà suggest that the JEC will push the Catalan chamber to oust Borràs from her seat.
Juvillà and Torra, the precedents are not encouraging
Historically, the JEC defended Article 6.2.b of Spain's electoral law (LOREG) to strip the credentials from former Catalan president Quim Torra and the former deputy of the CUP party Pau Juvillà. Although it did not have final court sentences in either case, the JEC went ahead anyway following the accusations that came from the Spanish right in the Catalan Parliament using its argument of "subsequent ineligibility". The article in question details that those convicted by a judicial verdict, "even if it is not final", for crimes of rebellion, terrorism, crimes against the public administration and against state Institutions are "ineligible". In this regard, it is considered that the abuse of authority of which Borràs has been convicted is a crime against the public administration.
In the case of Quim Torra, convicted of disobedience of the JEC itself for not removing a banner in support of the Catalan political prisoners, the central electoral body revoked the decision of the electoral commission in Barcelona, which had refused to declare him ineligible, arguing that doing so before the conviction was final would violate the fundamental right to political representation. In the resolution issued at the beginning of 2020, the JEC - voting 7 votes in favour and 6 against - agreed to strip him of his seat, an indispensable condition to be president of the Generalitat, after the TSJC had convicted him of disobedience. The speaker of Parliament at that time, ERC's Roger Torrent, withdrew his seat to enforce the order. Despite resisting, the Supreme Court ended up confirming the ban on office holding in his sentence.
The other precedent for the JEC also affects a political representative who disobeyed an instruction to remove a symbol: in the case of the former deputy for the CUP, Pau Juvillà, sentenced in December 2021 by the TSJC to a six month ban from office and a fine of 1,080 euros for refusing to remove yellow ribbons from the Lleida City Council, where he was a councillor, during the 2019 elections. At the request of the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, the commission included the crime of disobedience in the catalogue of crimes against the public administration and, therefore, his sentence entered into the "cause of ineligibility".
In the resolution, the JEC cited the case of Torra and reaffirmed that Juvillà had to be replaced in accordance with the electoral law and the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. On that occasion, Laura Borràs herself, as speaker of Parliament, obeyed the order of the JEC even though she had promised to protect the seat of the CUP MP, who was also secretary of the Bureau of Parliament.
The JEC vs. the pro-independence MEPs
The electoral body also played a key role in the European elections of May 2019. As a result of the vote, the pro-independence exiles Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comín, and the pre-trial prisoner Oriol Junqueras were all elected as MEPs. Once Brexit took place, another of the exiles, Clara Ponsatí also took a seat in the European Parliament. In all cases, the JEC attempted to block the acceptance of the Catalan politicians as MEPs, leaving the seats vacant because, as it argued, they had not properly complied with the Spanish Constitution.
In fact, the JEC demanded that the exiled leaders attend the Congress of Deputies in person to swear on the Constitution. As a result of the impediments, none of the initial three - Puigdemont, Comín and Junqueras - were able to attend the constituent session in early July 2019. However, after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recognized their immunity in December that year, the European chamber incorporated the Puigdemont and Comín as full parliamentarians at the beginning of 2020. Then it did the same with Ponsatí. In the case of Junqueras, the Parliament complied with the conviction of the Supreme Court that disqualified him from holding public office.
Who are the members of the JEC?
The commission is the body in charge of ensuring that electoral processes work in accordance with the correct functioning, transparency and equality in Spain. Under the electoral law, it has the power to resolve complaints, appeals and claims related to the elections. It is a body that is renewed every legislature, made up of eight members chosen by lot among the judges of the Supreme Court and five professors elected by the Congress of Deputies. Apart from this list of 13 members, the secretary general of the Spanish chamber and the director of the Electoral Census Office are also part of it, although without the right to vote.
At present the president of the JEC is the judge of the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court, Miguel Colmenero, since 2002, appointed when Ángel Acebes was minister of justice. Colmenero competed unsuccessfully with Maunel Marchena to preside over the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court, which would later convict the leaders of the pro-independence process for sedition. In 2018, he was one of the three judges who ratified the pre-trial detention for Oriol Junqueras.
As a judge, he was part of the court that convicted another judge, Baltasar Garzón; was the spokesperson judge in the Andalusian EROs corruption case against the PSOE, and was sounded out as a candidate to fill the vacancy of Chief Prosecutor in 2017 after the sudden death of José Manuel Maza. On the other hand, the vice-president of the JEC is the acting president of the Supreme Court, Francisco Marín Castán, replacing María Luisa Segoviano, who took office as a judge of the Constitutional Court.