The Constitutional Court has rejected the appeal filed by the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, who believed that his fundamental rights were violated by not being allowed to run in the November 2019 elections as the head of his party’s list. The court ruled that there was no violation because Junqueras’s appeals before the ordinary courts were not ignored, but were reasoned and concluded that he could not be part of the candidacy because he had been convicted of sedition and embezzlement. The sentence explains that Junqueras’s passive voting rights were not violated because the Organic Law of General Electoral Regime considers ineligible those sentenced to prison, a circumstance that applies to the plaintiff.
The court emphasizes that Junqueras was sentenced by the Supreme Court to 13 years in prison and 13 years of absolute disqualification in the sentence for the Catalan independence process. The Barcelona Provincial Electoral Board, upon consultation with the Central Electoral Board, required the coalition to replace Junqueras as candidate, which was complied with and Gabriel Rufián took his place. The court also highlights that on November 7, 2019, the coalition’s representative requested Junqueras to be reinstated as the number one candidate after learning that the disqualification sentence had been suspended by the court. The Central Electoral Board denied the revision request on the grounds that the sentence included imprisonment and he was currently serving it, making him ineligible under the law.
The plaintiff filed an administrative appeal against this decision, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court’s Administrative Litigation Section on March 18, 2021, citing the correct application of the law regarding the ineligibility of individuals serving prison sentences. The plaintiff argued that his right to effective recourse was violated, as well as his right to run in the elections and to have judicial decisions executed as intended, due to the disregard of the suspension of the disqualification sentence. The court affirmed that there was no violation of the right to execute judicial decisions on their own terms because the basis for the exclusion was the prison sentence, making the suspension of disqualification irrelevant in this context.
In summary, the Constitutional Court rejected Oriol Junqueras’s appeal regarding his exclusion from the 2019 elections due to his conviction for sedition and embezzlement. The court ruled that his passive voting rights were not violated as per the law, and that the decisions taken by the Electoral Boards and the Supreme Court were reasoned and valid. Despite Junqueras’s attempt to be reinstated as a candidate after the suspension of his disqualification sentence, the Central Electoral Board denied the revision request. Ultimately, the court upheld the decision that Junqueras was ineligible to run for office due to his sentence, and that his right to execute judicial decisions according to their terms was not violated.
