In what amounted to a controversial vote, the Constitutional Court rejected the jurisdictional claim that theCongress had presented against the Judiciaryafter this last institution restoredInés Tello and Aldo Vásquez.According to what was communicated by the TC, the rapporteur magistrate Hernández Chávez and the magistrates Morales Saravia and Gutiérrez Ticse retired without the presidency having adjourned the session, which caused controversy over whether or not there was a quorum at the time of the session. vote.
The president of the TC, Luz Pachecospoke out on the matter and assured, during an interview with RPP, that there was a quorum. “The quorum was seven, when the vote began we were seven. Three people withdrew, but that is like when the vote is reserved, so it does not invalidate,” he explained.
Likewise, he clarified what the circumstances of the vote were. According to Pacheco, from the beginning there was difficulty in communication because judges Morales and Gutiérrez were meeting virtually, while the others were in person.
In that context, Pedro Hernandez Chavez He presented his presentation proposing to declare the claim partially founded, however, this was not accepted by the majority of the members. Due to this, the debate lasted more than two hours in which it was not possible to reconcile. Consequently, Luz Pacheco, in her capacity as president of the TC, proceeds to the vote.
“I said that we were going to proceed to the vote and Dr. Hernández, who must have been a little mortified by what was happening, grabbed his things and left. I don’t think he heard me, but he left. Dr. Morales and Gutiérrez They asked what had happened. We followed the vote and, at one point, Dr. Gutiérrez thought we were imposing something and cut off communication, as did Morales,” he explained.
“We started the vote with seven”
“There were four of us left, but we started the session with seven and with seven we started the vote. It happened, as on other occasions, that one of the magistrates withdrew or reserved his vote. If they did not vote at this moment, it was as if they had reserved their vote. vote. According to article 102 of the Constitutional Procedure Code, for there to be a resolution there must be five votes in favor of this position,” he stated. .
In addition, he stated that the vote was held because it was an issue that had been postponed for quite some time. “Since July we have been trying to get a decision on this jurisdictional conflict. For one reason or another it has been delayed and we had all decided, the seven of us, to get it out this week anyway,” he said.
On the other hand, he explained that the TC has not determined whether the disqualification of Inés Tello and Aldo Vásquez by Congress was erroneous or not.
“What they do to these two people is a violation of the right to due process. Who is the only one who can decide whether Congress acted well or badly in terms of the protection of fundamental rights? We consider that Congress does not because it would be a judge and part. It had to be someone different and that someone was the Judiciary. We have not gone into the substance, we have not said whether the disqualification is right or wrong. The constitutional judge has to determine that. Not us. Supreme,” he declared.
