The Supreme Court of Justice processed two complaints against the judges of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). In one case the voting results are questioned and in another the registration of Manuel Baldizón as a candidate.
One of the lawsuits was presented by the political party National Unity of Hope (UNE), days after its presidential candidate, Sandra Torres, lost the elections in the second round, on August 20.
The magistrates reported in the first case are Blanca Alfaro, Irma Palencia, Ranulfo Rojas, Gabriel Aguilera and Mynor Franco. The last four are investigated by the Public Ministry (MP) for the purchase of the computer program for Transmission of Preliminary Electoral Results (Trep).
The motives
The complaint filed by the UNE alleges anomalies in the writing of the minutes. According to what he indicates, this could have altered the electoral result in at least 164 final minutes.
Vamos is one of the political groups that have most questioned the final results of the elections. This party led a protection action that ordered at the time that the review hearings be repeated after the first electoral round, on June 25.
Opposition deputy Víctor Valenzuela, who is also the general secretary of Vamos, calls for objectivity and assures that the facts indicated must be clarified.
“This is a procedure that has been going on for a long time and has been treated for various reasons. We have at all times said that justice and the decisions of the Courts that have to do with the electoral issue be respected,” he stated.
He added that the only thing sought is to clarify facts that have raised doubts. “I am not interested in affecting anyone in particular, I am not interested in overlooking any crime. What interests me is that the future investigative commission analyzes and makes the correct decision,” Valenzuela stressed.
“There was no fraud”
The currently independent deputies, who were elected by the Semilla Movement, consider that the CSJ’s decision was not correct.
Legislator Andrea Reyes, also a defense lawyer in the legal proceedings faced by the Semilla Movement, indicated that there are no doubts about the electoral results. “Let it be clear that there was no electoral fraud as many still try to make it seem,” she said.
It is a fact that a commission must be installed, and said congresswoman hopes that it is the right time to rectify the mistake made by the judicial authorities.
The second case
Another request for a pretrial against two regular magistrates and a substitute also arrived at the Congress of the Republic. They were denounced by Geovanny Fratti and Karen Fisher for the registration of Manuel Baldizón as a candidate for deputy.
Judges Irma Palencia, Mynor Franco and Álvaro Cordón are accused in this case. But the CSJ had already heard this case on June 1, 2023, rejecting the pretrial.
But the complainants filed the same complaint in two ways. One of them physically in a peace court. The judiciary inhibited itself, elevated it to the CS and rejected it according to pretrial number 76-2023.
Now the new CSJ learned of a complaint for the same facts that was presented digitally before the MP, which had a different approach for transferring the complaint to the judicial authorities.
But despite this judicial precedent, despite being the same facts, now the new CSJ does admit the complaint for processing. Pretrial that also reached Congress and to which case number 227 – 2023 corresponds.
Last year, the TSE validated the registration of Manuel Baldizón in a plenary session, three to two. A day later, the same electoral plenary retracted the decision and annulled the candidacy.
Now it is up to Congress to define how many investigative commissions it will install for the preliminary proceedings processed against the TSE magistrates.
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