According to a report from the Secretary of the Plenary detailing how the process should be done, The first plenary session this Monday will be the notification of the resignation of Pedro Martín as island president. “According to the reiterated criterion of the Central Electoral Board, being able to cite the agreements of dates of September 19, 2001, April 24, 2002, December 17, 2003 and December 21, 2005, it corresponds to hold the Presidency of this extraordinary session to the first vice president, Berta Pérez”, clarifies the report.
Under the Presidency of Berta Pérez and once logged in, The Secretary General will be informed of the plenary session of the document submitted through the General Electronic Register and the specific one of the General Secretariat of the Plenary, dated June 27, 2023, by the president of the Island Corporation, Pedro Martín, through which he resigns as president, maintaining the status of island councilor.
The plenary will thereby formalize, according to the instructions of the General Secretariat, the acknowledgment of said resignation from the position of president, making it effective for all legal purposes and consequently leaving the Presidency of the Cabildo de Tenerife vacant and without it being necessary to submit the matter to a vote, as established by the Third Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court, in its Judgment dated January 23, 2006.
Immediately after the first plenary session on Monday, a second extraordinary plenary session will be held to proclaim the new president. In accordance with the reiterated criteria of the Central Electoral Board, it corresponds to hold the Presidency of this extraordinary session to the first vice president, Berta Pérez, having resigned in writing, on June 28, 2023, the condition of head of the list presented by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in the Local Elections of May 28, 2023.
Once the second session has begun, the general secretary of the plenary session will state the following: “The Presidency of the Island Corporation is vacant, due to the resignation of the previous president, once it has been made effective in writing before the plenary in a previous extraordinary session, it is appropriate to carry out the legal procedures required to carry out the election of the new president or new president of the Cabildo de Tenerife”, details the report.
For the election of the new president, the General Secretariat of the Plenary will apply the regulations of the city councils. Said regulation is fully transferable to this Island Council for the cases of vacancy of the Presidency, as established by the Central Electoral Board in its agreement adopted in session dated January 14, 2021, stating that “even though it is true that the LOREG (Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime) does not provide for the procedure for the election of the president of a Canarian island council in the event of its resignation, it does establish a general criterion for referral to the procedure established for the elections of councilors in municipalities with more than 250 inhabitants”, adding that “since art. 198 of the LOREG is the one applicable to the resignation of the president of the municipal corporation, in the opinion of this Board, this should also be the one applicable by analogy to the resignation of the president of a Canarian island council”.
As indicated in the aforementioned precept, a new election must be held among the candidates who head the corresponding lists. “If any of them obtains the absolute majority of the votes of the members of the Cabildo, they must be proclaimed as president-elect. If they do not obtain said majority, the person at the top of the list that would have obtained the greatest number of popular votes in the last elections must be proclaimed.”
Regarding the voting system applicable to said election, the voting by the ordinary system, taking place by show of hands, voting in which each corporate member can only vote once, exclusively in favor of one of the heads of the list presented as a candidate.
With this mechanism, and after the pact signed between the Canary Islands Coalition and the Popular Party, CC candidate Rosa Dávila will be elected president of the Cabildo de Tenerife. CC and PP could not present the motion of censure, as planned, when Pedro Martín resigned from the Presidency. With all this unprecedented situation in the history of the Island Corporation, Rosa Dávila will be elected with the votes of her own party, CC, and the PP, and The possibility of a motion of censure will remain open throughout the mandate. The operating regulations of the Canary Island corporations only allow one motion of censure in a four-year term.
