• Controversy The PP wields that Batet violated the rules of Congress by preventing the deputy from voting in person

  • Voting Congress validates the labor reform thanks to a PP deputy who claims to have voted against it

Computer error or human error?

Whether it is a mistake in the computer system of the Congress of Deputies -the first in the history of democratic parliamentarism- or an error by the deputy of the Popular Party

Alberto Casero

, in the formation of Pablo Casado they are determined to take the battle for the vote to the end that gave the parliamentary victory by the minimum to the Government in a key issue such as the validation of the labor reform.

The parliamentary dispute could have the Constitutional Court as its last stop.

The

popular

ones maintain that by virtue of

article 6

of the resolution of the Congress Table -dated May 21, 2012- that establishes that «the deputy who had cast his vote through the telematic procedure may not cast his vote in person without express authorization of the Table of the Chamber that, in the event that it decides to authorize the vote in person, it will declare the telematic vote null and void ", the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, should have allowed Alberto Casero to vote in person.

The sources of the legal services of the Lower House consulted by

EL MUNDO

explain that the key is to determine if President Batet attributed a competence that she lacks when, without previously hearing the opinion of the Table, she did not give the PP deputy an option to annul their telematic vote and vote in person in the Chamber.

In addition, they ensure that deputies have the right to change their vote from telematic to face-to-face as long as the vote has not started.

According to the session diary, in the plenary session this Thursday, the spokesperson for the Popular Group, Cuca Gamarra, questioned the president to tell her that a "computer error" had occurred, and Meritxell Batet responded that "the Table is knowledgeable and has been able to analyze the question that you are going to put to me".

However, there is no evidence that such a meeting of the Congress Table took place, indicate different parliamentary sources.

The legal debate raised could lead one to think that the fundamental right of the deputy to vote according to his will is above any regulatory precept of the Chamber, indicate legal sources.

At the moment, Batet has not formally commissioned the lawyers of Congress to issue a report on what happened, although it is not ruled out that the legal services of the Chamber end up ruling on an issue that, beyond the political consequences that it has entailed, is clearly legal.

Depending on the response of the Table to the claims of the PP, this formation could request from a rectification of the result of the vote to a repetition of it.

If the Table considers that we are facing a clear human error by Casero that cannot and should not be rectified, Casado's formation has already announced that it will appeal to the Constitutional Court.

In this second scenario, it is highly likely that the Court of Guarantees would admit for processing the protection claim of the popular for an alleged violation of the exercise of their functions as a parliamentarian under conditions of equality (

article 23.2

of the

Constitution

) and under the argument of that the will of the Chamber was vitiated by Batet's action.

Legal sources consulted explain that although the percentage of admission of amparo claims is very low, in the case of those known as "parliamentary appeals", where the decisions of the Lower House Committee can only be challenged before the TC, the The court admits the vast majority of these resources for processing due to their constitutional significance.

similar precedent

In addition, the sources of the body consulted maintain that there is no constitutional doctrine on an event of these characteristics, that is, that it affects the telematic vote.

There is only one similar precedent -but not identical- of an estimation of an amparo of a deputy of the PSOE in the Basque Parliament who, during the face-to-face vote of the autonomous budget bill of the year 2005, could not exercise his right to vote because when he went to use the "no" button, he found that it did not work.

His vote was not cast despite the complaints of the Socialist Party, which in the plenary session of the Autonomous Chamber protested what happened, that is, the technical failure.

Even so, the president of the Chamber refused to repeat the vote and the Socialist's vote was never counted.

On that occasion, the Constitutional Court upheld the protection of the deputy

Irene Novales

and annulled the vote carried out in the Basque Parliament and stressed that "the fundamental right of a parliamentarian falls on the organs of the Chamber, and especially on its president , the task of proving that the deputy had negligent conduct".

The High Court ruled that "it is not logical to understand that, in the face of a technical problem, which can occur more or less frequently in this type of electronic system and without, on the other hand, having been irrefutably demonstrated that it was negligence on the part of the deputy , the only presidential reaction was the refusal to verify the anomaly at that time and to repeat, where appropriate, the disputed vote, with the serious consequences that this implied for the result of the same and for the knowledge of the authentic the will of the Chamber on such an important issue for the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country as the approval of its Budget Law".

Regarding the case of deputy Casero, parliamentary sources indicate that the services of the Lower House informed President Meritxell Batet that there had been no computer error in the vote of the PP parliamentarian, who voted

no

, contrary to the indications of his party, on two other occasions.

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