The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has dismissed the PSOE’s appeal to review the 30,303 invalid votes cast in Madrid after the foreign vote count (CERA) alleging that the Socialists do not allege any irregularity in the general count that justifies its repetition . The socialist party calculated that, validating 4.43% of those votes, it would once again win the seat that it lost to the PP in the foreign vote and that now forces it to depend on the affirmative vote of Junts to reach a sufficient majority to obtain the investiduation of Pedro Sánchez.
In the first instance, the PSOE filed an appeal before the Madrid Electoral Board, but the provincial entity rejected the request, alleging that it was “unfeasible”. After learning of this decision, the Socialists appealed to the JEC and accused the Provincial Electoral Board of Madrid of having infringed the electoral regulations and of violating the Constitution by denying their request.
The JEC has agreed, after a meeting held early this afternoon, to dismiss the Socialist claim to repeat the general recount and only estimates the resources to annul three votes in Collado Villalba, Torrejón de Ardoz and Madrid.
Against the agreement of the JEC there is no appeal, although the agreement of the Electoral Board of Madrid on the proclamation of elected officials may be the subject of a contentious-electoral appeal, recalls the Board in a statement. In addition, it has announced the presentation of a particular vote against the ruling.
The Central Electoral Board justifies its decision in that the PSOE, as a recurring party, “does not adduce any irregularity” in the general scrutiny to justify the repetition of the count, but rather “limits itself to invoking its right to review the null vote indicating the closeness in the number of votes needed to modify the distribution of seats in the Madrid constituency”. The JEC considers that this claim “lacks constitutional and legal anchoring” and that an argument of this nature “cannot be accepted”, since “it is contrary to the procedure established” in the electoral law (Loreg) and “would make it unfeasible to comply with the legally established deadlines.
After this decision, the JEP of Madrid will proceed to deliver credentials to those elected by this constituency, which was paralyzed pending the resolution of the JEC, thus confirming the loss of a socialist seat in favor of the PP by the CERA vote in Madrid.
The PSOE request had come after the CERA vote snatched a seat from them and gave the PP its 16th deputy for the Community of Madrid, 137 of the popular ones in Spain. After this last count, however, the difference in favor of the popular was minimal: the PSOE was 1,323 votes away from obtaining its 11th deputy.
