► Court asked to start clock on two-month deadline toward new election ►
Catalonia’s regional Socialist party filed a request for an injunction Tuesday with Spain’s (Constitutional Court), after the president of the executive committee of Catalonia’s regional Parlament refused for the second time to break a political stalemate and start proceedings toward parliamentary election of a new regional president.
Miquel Iceta, general secretary of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC), the regional affiliate of Spain’s national Socialist party (PSOE), filed the request with the court after executive committee president Roger Torrent of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia) refused for a second time at a committee meeting to discussion either of two competing proposals to start the clock running on the parliament’s presidential election process.
► Download PDF in Spanish of PSC filing with Tribuna Constitucional …
One proposal was put forward Friday by Inés Arrimadas, leader of the Ciudadanos party, which on 21st December won the most votes and seats in the regional assembly, but failed to capture an overall majority of seats in Parlament. It calls for Torrent to consider his postponement last month of Puigdemont’s candidacy as tantamount to a failed presidential bid, thereby triggering a statutory two-month period during which Catalonia’s parties must negotiate to put forward an alternative candidate or automatically face new regional elections.
A previous proposal, aired last week by the pro-independence Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) coalition, which won the most votes among pro-independence parties in 21st December regional elections, calls for an amendment to parliamentary rules to enable the remote election of former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, currently in Brussels to avoid arrest on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in relation to events surrounding an illegal 1st October independence referendum and declaration of independence from Spain by the Catalan parliament.
The Constitutional Court has already warned that election of Puigdemont en absentia by the pro-independence majority in Parlament would be unconstitutional and would be immediately overturned.
Given Torrent’s inaction Tuesday, the Catalan Socialists immediately filed for an injunction with the Constitutional Court that would force Torrent to start the clock ticking on the two-month deadline in order to break the deadlock that has left Catalonia without an elected regional government since the December elections.
► Read More in Spanish at RTVE Noticias, La Vanguardia and El Independiente …
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