The lawyers of Congress have forcefully rejected all the allegations of the PP that sought to annul the controversial vote that approved the labor reform by a single vote in favor of the margin last week, as La Sexta has advanced and EL PAÍS has been able to confirm.
A report from the legal services of the Cortes, sent this Friday to the parliamentary groups to support the debate of the Chamber Table that will be held on Tuesday, concludes that the erroneous vote of the popular deputy Alberto Casero is irrevocable and "was validly issued ”.
The document determines that there are no precedents or legal or regulatory reasons that allow Parliamentarian Casero to have "a second chance" to vote again, as he himself and the PP intended.
More information
Lies and half-truths about the wrong vote of deputy Alberto Casero
The first conclusion of the 14-page document of the lawyers already firmly dismantles some of the arguments used by the PP to present various appeals and allegations against the actions of the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, who did not authorize deputy Casero to repeat your vote, this time in person in the hemicycle.
“The voting procedure, the only valid form of expression of the will of the Chamber, is not available to the deputy, and cannot be left to his discretion, which would introduce an element of uncertainty contrary to the fundamental right of political participation and the principles of equality and legal certainty.
Specifically, the telematic voting procedure is of an exceptional nature, so that it only fits in a limited way,
02:42
This was the approval of the labor reform in Congress
Teodoro García Egea and Cuca Gamarra protest to Batet for the approval of the labor reform, on February 3 in Congress.
In the third row, behind Egea, Deputy Casero is seated. Photo: EUGENIA MORAGO |
Video: EPV
The legal services report adds that Deputy Casero's vote was "validly cast and has full effect."
After examining numerous precedents and reviewing the telematic voting system applied and in force since May 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, the lawyers also affirm that "there was no failure in the voting system, and it must be attributed to a material error by the deputy who the vote cast did not coincide with the will that was wanted to be expressed”.
“The telematic voting procedure, which was carried out in accordance with the current legal regime, was not violated either, as it has been happening since the start of the pandemic,” he adds.
The report adds that the personal verification that the popular ones demanded, is not carried out by telephone,
The lawyers consider ―in the face of the repeated complaint of various spokespersons and leaders of the PP, from Pablo Casado to his spokesperson in the Chamber, Cuca Gamarra― that Deputy Casero was able to exercise “correctly and fully the fundamental right recognized by the article 23 of the Constitution”.
The PP had already prepared for the rejection of the legal services of the Cortes and its spokesman in Congress.
Cuca Gamarra has announced through Twitter that they have presented two amparo appeals to the Constitutional Court because Casero's vote was prevented "from being in accordance with his will, altering the majority will of the Chamber."
The popular ones understand that the parliamentarian saw his right to vote what he conscientiously believed violated, contrary to the vote that he issued from his home electronically.
The PP came to denounce at first that there had been a system failure, a computer error, but then relegated that complaint after verifying that the deputy Casero had made a mistake that same day up to four times in the 14 votes planned.
Presented 2 amparo appeals before the Constitutional Court for violation of art.23.1 CE by preventing, previously warned and in accordance with the Regulation, that the vote was in accordance with their will, altering the majority will of the chamber.
We'll get to the end.
– Cuca Gamarra (@cucagamarra) February 11, 2022
Both the national spokesman for the PP, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and Gamarra, have ignored the reasons of the lawyers and technicians of the Cortes and have remarked that the party will go to the Constitutional Court.
The work of the legal services of Congress also enters into the debate that has taken place these days about the possibility of correcting a vote.
And it reaffirms that "the vote validly cast, whether in person or online, is irrevocable, from which it necessarily follows that voting, except for a technical error (Constitutional Court Judgment 361/2006, of December 18) and in the cases expressly provided for in the Regulation (articles 37 and 88), they are not repeated”.
According to the report, in these years there have been "numerous precedents" and, when material errors have been recorded, the affected deputy has been allowed to record his discrepancy.
The PP, after avoiding its first reproaches about the system, has focused its claims on the fact that the Congress Table, the body that decides and regulates the operation of the Chamber, had not met to assess the request of the deputy and his party to repeat his failed telematic vote from the hemicycle.
On this occasion they wield the sixth section of a resolution of the Congress Table of May 21, 2012, which prevents the deputy who has voted electronically from being able to repeat his vote in person if he does not have express authorization from the Table.
The lawyers resolve, however, that this option "cannot place the telematic voter in a position of advantage neither compared to the deputies who vote by the ordinary procedure, nor compared to the rest of the telematic voters who could not go to vote in person".
And they clarify that this section "is not conceived as a second chance for the deputy who votes electronically, but as an exceptional mechanism provided so that, if appropriate (...) guarantee the exercise of the right to vote."
The lawyers defend that Casero's case is not within those hypothetical precedents and, therefore, "it was neither legally required nor necessary to convene the Board."
The legal document of the lawyers is accompanied by another report, in this case from the Director of Information Technologies and Telecommunications of the Congress, Javier de Andrés Blasco, sent to the Secretary General of the Congress, Carlos Gutiérrez Vicen, in which he rules out that the On the day of the vote, on February 3, there was "no technical incident" in the vote for Casero.
The technical managers of the telematic voting application of Congress have analyzed the file and the trace of the steps of the deputy Casero to the smallest detail that day, since he connected at 5:39 p.m.
The popular representative entered the system and the day's session, they showed him the 28 issues under discussion, he was told the 20 available to vote until 6:00 p.m. and the remaining eight that had already been previously voted on.
Casero saved his vote in the system at 5:46 p.m. and 55 seconds and there it can be seen “without any doubt” that he chooses to say yes to the labor reform.
The document specifies that, after the deputy saved his vote, a summary appeared on his screen with the vote cast, a button to confirm it and another to cancel it and return to the start.
At 17.
46 and 59 seconds the proof of his vote was recorded.
The system confirms that in the rest of that afternoon, between 5:49 p.m. and 5:55 p.m., Deputy Casero re-entered the application to consult his votes up to five times.
After all these checks, the computer technical service of the Congress also concludes that "no computer error or incident is observed".
And they support that position also in that that day, for that vote, a total of 14 deputies were enabled to cast their vote electronically as Casero and none have reported any problem.