The Council of the Judiciary finally chose the two short lists of candidates to fill the two vacancies that exist in the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE). The shortlist one was made up of Emilio Camacho (independent), César Rossel (PLRA) and Édgar Urbieta (ANR). While the shortlist two was made up of Myriam Cristaldo ANR), Jorge Bogarín (ANR) and Gustavo López (independent).
With this, what they feared from the PLRA took place, that Emilio Camacho and César Rossel integrate the same shortlist, taking into account that they are two of the best scores and only one can be elected by shortlist.
The idea of the PLRA was that Rossel be elected by his party while Camacho is elected as representative of the third space. The other fear that existed was that the Chartist candidate Myriam Cristaldo would join a shortlist where the best candidates were not.
It should be remembered that there are three members of the TSJE. The one that continues in the position is Jaime Bestard who represents the ANR (chartism), while the other two quotas corresponded to the PLRA and the last one to the third space. With this, Chartism can have a majority in the event that the Senate ends up choosing Cristaldo.
WAGNER
Luis Alberto Wagner, former senator for the PLRA, led a demonstration outside the Council of the Judiciary to demand that the highest scorers not be included in the same list in the TSJE.
“Cartes’ order is that Rossel and Camacho form the same list so that we don’t have two decent and reasonable ministers in the TSJE. So in the second trio there will be a colorado that they can handle. President Bestard is already a Chartist and one more will destroy the democratic process”, he warned.
According to Wagner, if a Chartist candidate is elected, the Concertación will not be possible because the TSJE will not accept the list to be used for the December 18 elections.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Óscar Paciello, president of the Council of the Judiciary, gave a press conference where he answered some queries from the press about this process of forming the list.
Regarding the accusations by Pedro Santa Cruz, a national senator for the PDP and a member of the Judicial Council, that there was a boycott in favor of the candidate Myriam Cristaldo, linked to the Colorado Party (Chartism), Paciello responded that these statements do not fit to the true.
“We have pointed it out at the end of the session. These are reckless accusations. There are no objective elements to demonstrate this. No one was arbitrarily excluded. Everything was done around the regulation”, he expressed.
Regarding the decision that Rossel and Camacho form the same shortlist, Paciello responded that they evaluated the merits and attitudes of the 34 initial applicants.
“At no time was their political affiliation analyzed, whether they were opposition members or pro-government members. There was no substance to support those accusations,” he noted.
In the event that the Senate rejects the lists, Paciello did not want to venture to affirm what the procedure to follow will be.
Gustavo Ariel López was the only candidate whose claim was reconsidered, thus achieving the necessary scores to be able to aspire to the TSJE.
Today, Tuesday, during an extraordinary session, the notes and minutes of the last session will be sent in digital format. Then it will be up to the Senate to define the date of the election of the lists. Only one candidate from each list may be elected.
SANTA CRUZ
At the beginning of the session, Pedro Santa Cruz reaffirmed the accusations he made last Friday against three of his colleagues; Jorge Bogarín, representative of the bar association, Raúl Torres Kirmser, representative of public universities and César Ruffinelli, representative of private universities.
He insisted that there was a premeditated intention to leave without the possibility of forming the two short lists.
