The lawyers of the Congress have concluded in their report that the one of the PP Alberto Casero in favor of the labor reform was valid and that there was no room for its revocation even if he was wrong. In addition, they rule out that there has been a failure of the computer system.
Meanwhile, the Popular Group and the deputy Alberto Casero have presented individual appeals for amparo before the Constitutional Court, considering that there has been a “democratic outrage” in the plenary session of the Lower House on February 3.
The labor reform went ahead, which makes the error of this parliamentarian decisive.
The report submitted to the Bureau interprets electronic voting. considers that telematic voting is regulated by a 2012 Presidency resolution, which determined that there should be a telephone check with the deputy, but determines that the system changed in 2020 as a result of the confinement due to the pandemic and the generalization of voting from home, through a resolution of the Board of Congress.
From that moment, the verification is done through the computer application enabled for the deputies and the introduction of their username and password on the intranet of the Chamber.
The lawyers conclude that the system worked on the day of the vote on the labor reform and that Casero was not the only one who voted, but that a total of 14 deputies took advantage of this type of vote in that plenary session, without any more complaining of any computer failure, therefore, Casero’s vote, even if he was wrong in the validation of the decree law and in two other votes, must be considered valid.
“Mr. Casero’s vote was validly cast and produces full effect. As has been proven, there was no failure in the voting system, and it must be attributed to a material error of the deputy that the vote cast did not coincide with the will that they wanted to demonstrate”, sentenced the legal services of Congress.
Casero says he verified the vote
Faced with the thesis of the PP, they emphasize that the telematic voting procedure “was not violated”, but that the deputy exercised his right to vote “correctly and fully”.
Moreover, in a more technical report that completes the legal opinion, it is detailed at what exact time Casero entered the intranet, when he cast his vote and at what time the receipt came out. And you can also see how he checked his vote up to five times in the five minutes after he saw the receipt. That must have been when he realized his mistake.
Having ruled out the computer failure, the lawyers stress that there was no option to revoke the vote, nor to change it for face-to-face voting, as demanded by the PP: “A validly cast vote, whether in person or electronically, is irrevocable, from which necessarily that the votes, except for a technical error, are not repeated”, emphasize the lawyers, arguing “numerous precedents” and even a sentence of the Constitutional Court.
And they remember that telematic voting is of an exceptional nature and cannot entail an advantage over those who exercise it in person, nor allow them to vote a second time from the chamber, as the PP wanted. There is no “second chance” for those who have made a mistake when voting from home: “The telematic voter cannot be placed in a position of advantage, neither in front of the deputies who vote by the ordinary procedure, nor in front of the rest of the telematic voters who could not go to vote in person.
No need to gather the Table
And it also lays down the claim of the PP that has reproached the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, for not having urgently met the Table to discuss their requests to change the vote of Casero. For the lawyers, “there are no circumstances that would have justified the annulment” of Casero’s telematic vote, and therefore “it was neither legally enforceable nor necessary to bring the Board together, having acted in accordance with precedent, considering that, not there being a technical error, it was not possible to allow the vote to be repeated”.
Finally, it rejects the other demand of the PP to have paralyzed the publication of the vote for the validation of the decree since it considers that the Plenary Congress has already ruled “validly” in that vote, even if it was adjusted, “expressing its will in a definitive way “.
Gamarra defends the repetition
Meanwhile, the PP parliamentary spokesperson in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, after announcing the presentation of the amparo appeals before the PP, He stressed that “the right of his deputy, who gave prior notice of what had happened with the telematic voting, was violated.” He has defended that there was “capacity” for Casero to vote in person.
Gamarra has confirmed that the PP has formalized the presentation of these resources before knowing the report of the lawyers of Congress, who conclude that Alberto Casero’s vote in favor of the labor reform was valid and could not be revoked even if he was wrong. In this report, it is also ruled out that there has been a failure of the computer system.
The leader of the PP has criticized that more than a week after that vote on the labor reform, the Board of Congress has not yet met, but “yes, that report from the lawyers is leaked in an interested way” through the Chamber. “Here anything goes and what she shows is that the quality of democracy in our country is deteriorating,” she emphasized.
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