Catalan president banned from upcoming elections by electoral court
Catalan regional President Quim Torra. (AFP/Google Images)
Written by: Aidan Jonah
Spain’s Central Electoral Board (JEC) has banned Quim Torra, the head of Catalonia’s regional government, from elected office.
The JEC overruled a local Catalan electoral body, which had said Torra could remain in power until he exhausts all appeal options.
During Spain’s national elections in Oct. 2019, Torra was ordered by Spain’s electoral authority to withdraw signs in favor of the jailed Catalan leaders from the regional government headquarters. He received warnings that he could face criminal charges for failing to comply.
The Catalan leader was found guilty of disobedience by a Spanish court in December, was fined €33,000 and banned from holding public office for a year.
Friday’s ruling was a tight decision with seven members voting in favour of the sentence, while six voted against it.
A Biased Court?
When asked for comment, the Canadian Association for the Catalan Republic accused the JEC of bias and demanded that future electoral decisions be made by a judiciary body. CACR said that the JEC is a politicized body as “most of the members of the tribunal of the JEC where appointed by the right unionist parties PP and Ciudadanos.”
According to Catalan News, there are 13 members with voting rights. Eight are Supreme Court judges and five are academics.
The judicial representatives are selected according to a random ballot, while the major political parties pick the academics.
Certain Supreme Court judges in the JEC have presided over the trials of Catalan independence politicians, resulting in accusations of a lack of separation from the judiciary.
Politicized Decisions
This year, ex-Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was banned from running in subsequent EU elections while exiled in Belgium.
On the same day of Torra’s case, the electoral board stripped jailed Catalan politician Oriol Junqueras of his European Parliament seat. They overruled both the will of local voters and an EU Court of Justice decision in favour of the jailed politician.
The future
Torra has confirmed that he will challenge the JEC’s decision at the Spanish Supreme Court. Unless a decision in his favour occurs before the next election, he will no longer be able to run for the presidency and be a part of the regional government.