If the political situation was already complicated in Tacoronte since yesterday, it has become even more difficult after the decision of the La Laguna Zone Electoral Board to consider valid 283 Vox votes that were initially null because there was a material error in the proclamation of the candidacy , “being clear and unequivocal the will of the voters of the municipality.” This is confirmed by the decision of the Electoral Board, after the complaint letter presented by the formation led by Santiago Abascal due to the inclusion of a substitute candidate who had been annulled in the final ballot, but who did appear in those sent to homes .
The acceptance of these votes harms the Canary Islands Coalition (CC), which would have one less representative as it is the last political formation with a mayor assigned according to the d’Hont law, by exceeding 5% of the total votes validly cast and entering the distribution according to the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (Loreg). In this way, there would no longer be a technical tie with the PSOE, but this party would be the one with the largest number of councillors, five. The tie would be between CC and NC, with four each, followed by the PP with three, Somos Tacoronte with two, while Sí se puede, Ciudadanos and Vox would be left with one each.
In Tacoronte, a government pact between at least three political forces is necessary to govern with a majority and achieving it is becoming difficult. If there are no changes until June 17, the date on which the new local corporations take office, the Plenary would be made up of eight parties and this makes it difficult to reach agreements.
In its resolution, the Board indicates “that when determining the validity of the ballots, a distinction must be made between irrelevant modifications and those that allow doubting the effective will of the voter, whose undoubted good faith must be protected, as well as the purpose of their content is for the candidates to be perfectly identified, which implies that any defect that does not hinder such identification must be considered inconsequential”.
In the case of Vox in Tacoronte, the Electoral Board agreed by majority, with the exception of the vote against the non-judicial member of CC, “that there is no problem in admitting all the ballots as valid, even if they contain a candidate annulled substitute, since the voter is aware of all the candidates who are presented without any exclusion, so the vote would be and was an expression of his will and therefore valid”.
A decision that does not share, according to the same resolution, the non-judicial member of CC who does understand that “the inclusion of the ballot with a canceled substitute constitutes an alteration of the will to vote.”
The nationalists filed a claim with the Central Electoral Board – the PP confirms that it will do the same – “since in the ballots that are the subject of the controversy there is an alteration of the Vox candidacy with respect to the one that was proclaimed and published.” In this sense, they confirm that “with the incorporation of an unproclaimed candidate there is a clear alteration of the electoral list and this is contrary to the principle of inalterability of the electoral lists.”
CC recalls that article 48.1 of the Loreg establishes that “applications may not be subject to modification once submitted, except within the period authorized for the correction of irregularities provided for in the previous article and only due to the death or resignation of the holder or as a consequence of the rectification process itself”.
