https://www.laestrella.com.pa/nacional/230926/tendra-primera-palabra-impugnan

The Electoral Tribunal (TE) will have the first word in whether or not it accepts the candidacy of Marta Linares de Martinelli for the vice presidency of the Republic on the presidential list of the Realizing Goals (RM) party, headed by her husband Ricardo Martinelli.

The TE itself must rule if this nomination is challenged, and then the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) would have the last word, if it is sued as unconstitutional.

After Marta Linares de Martinelli’s candidacy for this position was made official, various opinions have emerged about whether or not she is prevented from aspiring to this position.

According to the lawyer and former presidential candidate for free nomination Eduardo Quirós, as established in article 193 of the Constitution, someone who is a relative of the President of the Republic or who is sitting in the presidential chair cannot be eligible as vice president (according to the numeral 2 of article 193) nor who is a relative of the person who is going to be elected president (numeral 5).

He argued that the confusion comes from a ruling issued by the Court in 2015, after the 2014 election, against Mrs. Marta Linares herself, who at that time was a candidate for vice presidency, being the wife of the acting president, Ricardo Martinelli.

That ruling, argued Quirós (who later declared that candidacy unconstitutional), was based on paragraph 2 of article 193 of the Constitution, which made reference to the fact that the president’s wife could not be a candidate for the vice presidency of the Republic.

However, he considered that what applies at this time is numeral 5 of article 193 of the Magna Carta.

Section 5 states that: “Relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity of the President of the Republic may not be elected vice president of the Republic.”

In this sense, he specified that paragraph 2 is the one that refers to the impediment to being vice president of the wife of the President of the Republic, for the period that follows the one in which the President of the Republic has held the position.

“Number 5 relates to whoever is president of the Republic. We cannot interpret that the constituent wrote the same thing twice. What this paragraph says is that you cannot be the spouse of whoever is President of the Republic and this is a criterion of ineligibility,” he specified.

But according to the expert on electoral issues, lawyer Javier Ordinola, article 193 of the Constitution does not speak of the spouse, but refers to relatives in the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity. “There are doctrines that say that the wife or husband are not related relatives, but rather their relatives would be the ones who would have some degree of affinity.”

He highlighted that there are other articles of the Constitution that when they want to refer to the spouse, they do mention the spouse such as article 23, unlike numeral 5 of article 193 which does not talk about the spouse.

He also maintained that the text speaks of the president, not the candidate. “The norm may have meant to say candidate for the Presidency, but it does not say so.”

He also recalled that the CSJ already ruled in 2015 on the candidacy of Marta Linares for the vice presidency and included her in some way with a degree of kinship by affinity, despite the fact that the Attorney General of the Administration at that time, Óscar Ceville, said that this should not be understood as a relative by affinity.

Ordinola considered that although the Court has already ruled, the statement alone, in his opinion, does not establish jurisprudence. “Jurisprudence, which is a source of law, has to be several rulings on the same topic,” he emphasized.

He stated that the only impediment he sees is that single ruling of the Court, which he considered is not sufficient jurisprudence, so the issue would have to be submitted to the Court again for consideration to see what opinion it has on the matter.

Despite all the legal arguments, Ordinola recalled that there must first be an official application before the Electoral Court so that this entity can refer to this application either admitting it or rejecting it, but the appeal will also be possible if the application is admitted by the TE and then that admission or rejection can be attacked through an appeal of unconstitutionality. “You cannot attack something that does not yet have legal life.”

For his part, lawyer Roberto Ruiz Díaz also stated that the rule as drafted does not affect the candidacy of Marta Linares, since article 193 establishes prohibitions on relationships with the president of the Republic and for the following term of that president, and Martinelli is not the current president.

He highlighted that if numerals 2 and 5 are reviewed, they say the same thing, since in 1972 numeral 5 of the 1946 Constitution was changed, which did establish the prohibition of being a candidate for vice president of relatives “of the candidate for President of the Republic.” . However, he recalled that said rule was modified by the constituent, removing that clear limitation.

He expressed that the Electoral Court should not reject said candidacy, but emphasized that this does not mean that it will not be sued later when it is final, causing the Court to interpret, under the principle of universality, and compare it with the other norms. and make a decision like in 2015.

While the jurist, academic and political scientist Cristina Torres Ubillús expressed, in relation to the exceptions of being part of the formulas as vice president, in accordance with article 193 of the Political Constitution, there are two substantial elements that could be decisive in relation to “being elected as vice president”; the aspect of consanguinity and affinity, which are not the same.

“Given this, none of those designated as the vice presidential formula violate the Constitution in any of its five paragraphs.”

He explained that in response to the 2015 CSJ ruling, it has no connection with the current formulas due to the temporality factor towards the 2024 elections.