The Central Electoral Board (JEC) decided yesterday to dismiss the allegations presented by the president of Junts, Laura Borràs, and by the vice-president of the Catalan Chamber, the republican Alba Vergés, regarding the loss of status as a member of the Parliament of the first, because a cause of ineligibility was presented after being sentenced by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia to 4 and a half years in prison and 13 years of disqualification for prevarication and document falsification.
The body that acts as an electoral arbiter understands that the assumption provided for in article 6.2 B of the law on the electoral regime occurs because it is a crime "against the public administration or against the institutions of the State". and they consider Borràs's credential to be invalid, in addition to issuing the next one, that of Antoni Castellà, as La Vanguardia has been able to learn. In any case, the agreement of the administrative body was not communicated to the parties yesterday and will be made public during the day today.
The JEC had already hinted at what the meaning of its decision would be in the first resolution it adopted in relation to this issue, but it had granted both the affected person and Vergés, who has been acting as President of the Parliament since July , ten days to present allegations.
Both had argued that the JEC lacks powers for this withdrawal of the record in Borràs, a decision that, according to their judgment, could only be adopted by the bodies of the Parliament. Borràs added to this reason the impact on his fundamental rights.
The resolution was the one that had been expected, since the same arguments were already dismissed by the JEC and the Supreme Court in the case of ex-president Quim Torra and ex-CUP deputy Pau Juvillà.
After the conviction at the TSJC, it was the PP, Vox and Ciutadans groups that went to the administrative body to demand the withdrawal of Borràs' deputy's record.
It is now up to Parliament to implement the decision. In the precedents of Torra and Juvillà, the Electoral Board sent the request to withdraw their credentials to the then presidents of the institution, to Roger Torrent in 2020 and to Borràs herself in 2022, because she ignored the first resolution.
In parallel with the JEC meeting, held in Congress, the Catalan Chamber, at the same time, was debating two proposals to reform the Parliament's regulations, one of which could affect Borràs: that of the Catalan Socialists. The PSC proposed that the president of the institution or any member of the Bureau can be dismissed if requested by two parliamentary groups or a fifth of the deputies and then the Chamber agrees by an absolute majority in a plenary vote. If the amendment proposed by Salvador Illa had been approved, a way would have been enabled to remove Borràs from the presidency of the Chamber, which has been in an interim situation since July.
In any case, the amendment in its entirety that Junts per Catalunya presented to the proposal was approved with 75 votes in favor, 41 against and 14 abstentions and, therefore, the initiative registered by the Socialists after the conviction in Borràs and his refusal to resign has remained on wet paper.
However, the debate served as a pretext for several groups to charge once again, for having refused to step aside, against the Junts leader, who was present in the chamber, in the box office of guests, as usual since it was suspended.
At the same time, another proposal was debated to reform the rules of the Chamber, which was promoted by ERC and the CUP and provides, among other issues, to regulate telematic voting - in such a way that the members of the Bureau are not compromised after the rulings of the Constitutional Court on the delegated vote of former councilor Lluís Puig–. This measure will follow its course in the parliamentary procedure.
