Spain's Central Electoral Commission (JEC) has excluded exiled Catalan leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí from the candidatures for next month's European elections. Last week, right-wing parties Ciudadanos and the PP lodged an objection against the candidate lists presented by the Catalan pro-independence JxCat party, alleging that Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí did not meet the eligibility requirements.
In the view of the PP, the exiled Catalan president and his two former ministers are not in full exercise of their rights, since they "fled Spain" and, therefore, cannot "be registered in the electoral roll", nor in the roll of residents abroad. Consequently, the party called for them to be ruled out as candidates and also erased from the municipal census. For its part, Ciudadanos argued that as they are "defaulting defendants" and do not appear in the roll of residents abroad, they are not eligible.
The JEC agreed in its meeting this Monday to accept the claim made by Cs and the PP, although it has not yet given its reasons. The Spanish electoral body says it will provide its explanation "within hours".
Since the exclusion of the Catalan politicians caused the candidature to no longer comply with the requirement of a balanced ratio between women and men, and since this Monday is the last day for candidatures to be presented, the JEC gave the JxCat party until 6pm to solve this issue.
Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí have two days from the publication of the candidatures to file an appeal against the ruling.