Junts call for repeat of 12 million remote vote after discovering “serious irregularities”

Together has asked for that repeated voices abroad of the Catalan elections of the past 12 months, as she believes that the “integrity” of the process has been compromised due to “serious irregularities”, when votes deemed invalid were overturned before the end of the challenge period.

The formation led by the former president Carlos Puigdemont has filed a complaint with the four provincial electoral councils of Catalonia, requesting that the electoral process of voting abroad regarding the 12-M elections be repeated and that the results not be announced until this vote is held again.

According to Junts, the “nullification” of votes due to their alleged invalidity before the expiry of the deadline to challenge them “poses a serious threat to the electoral rights of citizens and the integrity of the electoral process.”

Junts specifically points out that in Barcelona there are a total of 1,922 ballots corresponding to votes from abroad that have not been counted and destroyed – 11.05 of the ballots received from abroad in this province – while in Girona there are 446 voices have come from abroad. not counted and destroyed – 22.84% – and in Lleida 320 – 18.8% -, while Tarragona does not provide figures.

The provincial electoral councils of Girona, Lleida and Tarragona yesterday made public the counts of residents abroad, a count that did not change the distribution of seats.

For the party of Carles Puigdemont, which came second in the twelve elections after the PSC, if the votes are not counted and annulled, there will be an “apparent change” in the election results, with the resulting “violation of the right on political participation”. of both voters and candidates.

According to Junts, the fact that these votes were left out of the polls and not counted is not “attributable to errors on the part of the voters”, but rather to what they consider a “systemic error” regarding CERA votes or “worse yet”, a violation of electoral law.

This situation is visible to Junts “aggravated” bearing in mind that these unaccounted voices were destroyed before the statutory period for contestation, thereby “depriving” oneself of an effective right of defense with regard to the guarantees of the electoral process. Moreover, according to the formation, “the transparency of the electoral process is reduced” and “distrust” in its integrity may arise, “which affects the credibility of the democratic system.”

Junts warns about this in the same way The ‘premature destruction’ of votes may ‘hide errors or irregularities’ in the counting process, ‘accidental or intentional’and make it difficult to identify and correct these problems.

In addition, it also states that the annulment of votes without respecting the specified deadline “may be considered disproportionate and contrary to legality” and that the lack of access to the annulled votes “prevents” the electoral courts from being able to “ adequately’. claims and take action.

In this sense, he emphasizes that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has established that states must guarantee that electoral processes are “transparent and fair” and that citizens’ rights are respected. Therefore, he emphasizes that the “Premature destruction of votes could be considered a “violation” of these principles and rights.

For all these reasons, she requests that, in order to “reverse the violation of the rights of voters and candidates”, the electoral process of voting abroad against Barcelona, ​​​​Tarragona, Lleida and Girona be repeated and that the elections be suspended. announcement of the result until the vote is repeated again.