The Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office refuse to suspend the electoral roll derived from the 'grandchildren law'

The Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office have opposed suspending the registrations incorporated into the Electoral Census of Absent Residents -CERA- as a consequence of the so-called grandchildren law, as requested by Iustitia Europa and Vox, because that implies reviewing the granting of nationality, which is not what has been appealed.

The Supreme Court held two hearings this Monday to study the precautionary measures requested by both parties that appealed the agreement of the Central Electoral Board (JEC) of July 16 on the application of the aforementioned rule, which indicated, among other issues, that it could not agree to the non-admission of voting by mail from abroad because it exceeded its powers, although it requested information from the Electoral Census Office (OCE).

From Vox, the lawyer and MEP Jorge Buxadé has warned that "if the measure is denied, the census will continue to increase in an anomalous if not illegal way, and the repair of the damage will be irreversible", so that "it will have contributed to a gigantic and massive fraud" and to "a bankruptcy of the democratic state since the JEC is there to guarantee transparency and equal voting."

In this regard, he has given as an example that in just two months since he filed the appeal, the figures have been surpassed, there are 29,000 more registered voters, since 2023 there are 403,466 more voters.

Luis María Pardo, from Iustitia Europa, has defended the need to adopt precautionary measures to prevent a possible ruling from arriving when its electoral effects are already irreversible, because even if it is estimated "it may order the review of the census for future processes but what it will not be able to do is reconstruct with certainty an election that has already been held."

His intention, he has emphasized, is to "act against the electoral and census effects of the law", but not to remove nationality since the key is for the State to be able to demonstrate, before elections, that the electoral body is correctly formed.

On the contrary, the prosecutor has opposed this, making it clear that when it is requested that the registration process of people be suspended by virtue of their right to vote by having the prerequisite of nationality, "what is intended is to convert the OCE into a registrar that qualifies legal acts, in this case nationality, and says that they cannot access the census", which is an automatic and legal consequence granted after nationality.

For this reason, he continued, this is not the process of challenging the law on grandchildren or subsequent instructions, it cannot be "an appeal against everything, of absolute suspension of the entire system."

The State Attorney's Office has requested the inadmissibility of the appeal, which on the other hand has been opposed by the prosecutor and, in turn, the rejection of the precautionary measures, because the JEC agreement is neither challengeable nor appealable beyond the fact that there is no rule that forces the Board to issue instructions in the terms required by Iustitua and Vox, nor can a massive review of the right to vote be carried out, it must be done on a case-by-case basis.

Furthermore, it has indicated that the right to vote can only be deprived by a final criminal sentence, that the acquisition of nationality derives from final acts and that suffrage is a legal consequence.