Point and end to uncertainty. The investiture of the next mayor of Barcelona will take place next Saturday, June 17, at five in the afternoonas originally planned. The date would have changed to July 7 if Vox had decided to exhaust all avenues to demand a recount of the invalid vote, but it will not. The party has decided to give up requesting it through the courts once this Wednesday the decision of the Central Electoral Board (JEC) on his claim has been known. The news now leaves only three and a half days for the parties to close the open negotiations to form a government before the investiture.
Vox, who believes that they were included among the invalid ballots of his candidacy, will finally declare the results of the municipal elections final after having presented two appeals before the Zone Electoral Board (JEZ) and the JEC, successively.
The far-right party appealed the recount of the results of the municipal elections, which took place on June 2, five days after the elections, because in that operation the Zone Board only agreed to review the contested invalid vote, and not the total registered: 6,400 ballots. It is more than four times the invalid vote of 2019, which added 1,540 votes. The increase aroused suspicion.
two ballots
Vox presented two ballots to the municipal ones, one with a box in the logo, which was used for voting by mail, and another without a box, which was available at polling stations for in-person voting. The JEZ had validated both models, but in some tables several of those that did not have a box were cancelled. Vox argues that since it did not have a considerable number of attorneys, it was not in a position to challenge these cases. And that’s why he asked for a complete review.
The JEZ dismissed the first appeal, the one filed after the June 2 count, and Vox then filed a second appeal, this time before the JEC, which has also rejected his request. He had another step left: opt for the judicial route, present a contentious-administrative. Barcelona en Comú also appealed to analyze the invalid vote and, where appropriate, two specific tables. The Comuns, who also saw their request dismissed by the JEZ, They did not file a second appeal.
They are satisfied
But the party is convinced that it has gone far enough in its claim that the invalid ballot review criteria will be considered in the future. For this reason, he renounces to present the contentious-administrative that would have delayed the investiture.
The one that will be the group with fewer councilors of Barcelona City Council in the next mandate, with two representatives, thus waiving to mark the start period, which it would undoubtedly have done by forcing the delay: if the investiture had been held on July 7, it would have coincided with the first day of the general election campaign.
four and a half days
Vox’s decision clarifies the calendar, since with three more weeks the negotiations would have slowed down. By now, the outcome possibilities are pretty clear. One is that Xavier Trias, mayor of Junts, is sworn in as mayor for being the candidate with the most votes without there being another to add the 21 councilors who grant an absolute majority in the Barcelona consistory. Let him start solo, in which case he could make a deal after the generals.
Another, that Trias include ERC in his government, which would mean a sum of 16 councilors, which does not give that majority but does give more agility to govern than with only 11. The third option is sociovergence: Junts and the PSC have 21 councilors .
Share the mayor’s office
Related news
A fourth option is a left-wing alliance: that the PSC, Barcelona en Comú and ERC agree and elect one of their leaders as mayor: they add up to 24 councilors and that is why they could do so. Colau offered this Tuesday to Socialists and Republicans to share the mayoralty. The former rejected it emphatically and the latter considered that the offer is not serious because it has not been formally presented.
Another possibility is that the leader of the PP ranks in the next term, Daniel Sirera, vote for Collboni as mayor, and that the Socialist achieve another seven votes to reach 21. Seven votes that logically should come from the Comuns -which have ruled out an operation in which the popular also participate-, with the detail that Sirera makes as a condition to support the PSC that Barcelona en Comú is not in that hypothetical socialist government.