The former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, now a deputy of the Mixed Group, has requested authorization from the Congressional Board to be able to participate electronically from prison in the votes that will take place this Thursday in the Plenary Session of the Lower House. The Supreme just endorsed the decision of Judge Leopoldo Puente to prosecute him along with his former advisor Koldo García for alleged irregularities in the mask contracts awarded by the Ministry of Transportation during the pandemic, but the Congressional Board still does not have in its hands the official document to officially suspend Ábalos’ rights as a deputy.
Parliamentary sources explain that until they receive this confirmation from the Supreme Court, the Board will not be able to suspend him. Therefore, while that communication arrives, Ábalos’s entourage has spread through his ‘X’ account that he has requested the Chamber to vote electronically. The former minister clings to a recent reform of the Congressional regulations that speaks of “exceptional situations of special gravity” as an exception to granting telematic voting to parliamentarians.
The deputy emphasizes that the rule does not specify the reason for this exceptional situation and assures that not granting authorization would be “an unprecedented and extremely serious violation of both the rights inherent to any deputy and the representation of citizens.” Although the Board will now study that request and wait for the lawyers’ report, parliamentary sources explained these days that the spirit of this change in the regulations was designed for situations “exogenous” to the deputies and that going to prison is not one of them.
Most likely, Congress will not even have to deliberate whether to grant Ábalos the option of voting electronically: as soon as the Supreme Court informs the Board that the order is final, Congress will be able to apply the part of the regulation that contemplates the suspension of the rights and duties of a deputy. This is article 21, which specifically says that “the deputies will be suspended in their parliamentary rights and duties when, once the authorization subject to a request has been granted by the Chamber and the indictment order is signed, they are in a situation of preventive detention and for the duration of this.”
The judge confirmed several days ago his decision to send Ábalos to “reported provisional detention without bail.” However, Congress avoided directly suspending his rights while waiting for the indictment against the former minister to be final. The Supreme Court had planned to deliberate on the appeals filed against that decision on December 4 and finally announced its decision this Wednesday.
Congress has tried to be a guarantee in its decisions in recent days and to interpret the regulations on this matter scrupulously, to avoid violating the rights of the still deputy in an unprecedented situation. That is why he will wait for the judgment of the lawyers when studying whether or not to grant him the telematic vote, in the event that it still takes several hours for written confirmation from the Supreme Court.
