Electoral Court removes  Martinelli’s shield

The plenary session of the Electoral Court (TE) agreed to the request of the National Directorate of Electoral Organization and declared the suspension of the criminal electoral jurisdiction of former president  Ricardo Martinelli, in his capacity as president of the Realizing Goals (RM) party.

This was recorded on the morning of this Thursday, May 19.

The plenary session of this court is made up of magistrates Alfredo Juncá, Heriberto Araúz and Eduardo Valdés Escoffery. The edict also bears the signature of Myrtha Varela de Durán, general secretary of the TE.

It will be necessary to wait at least 24 hours –until this Friday– for the decision to be executed, the parties being notified.

In the ruling, the magistrates indicate that, just as the TE plenary session ruled in 2016, “if the electoral process has been stopped or suspended and the calendar interrupted, there cannot be any type of electoral jurisdiction, since its nature is intrinsic to an ongoing process”.

On April 24, RM held internal elections to choose the directives of the secretariats of Youth and Women, but the two lists that competed agreed that, due to “irregularities”, it was necessary to hold new elections.

The elections were held despite the fact that there were two attempts by the RM leadership to postpone them until after May 19, when the hearing for the “New Business” case resumed which is followed by a total of 46 defendants – among them the former president for alleged money laundering.