Martinelli claims “political persecution as TE nixes wife’s run for VP

Former President and current presidential candidate Ricardo Martinelli resurrected his “Political persecution” mantra on Sunday, October 1 in a 45-second message on social media after receiving a warning from the Electoral Tribunal (TE), that the candidacy of Marta Linares de Martinelli for the vice presidency, by the coalition made up of the Realizing Goals (RM) and Alianza parties, will be rejected if not comply with numeral 4 of article 337 of the Electoral Code.

Faced with the warning, the presidential candidate for RM and Alianza, alliance Ricardo Martinelli, denounced on the social network X that the Electoral Court had already rejected his wife’s vice-presidential candidacy.

“Today the electoral process opened and all parties can enter their candidates in the so-called Plagel of the Electoral Tribunal. We were very surprised that a huge number of candidates entered, including Vice President Marta Linares de Martinelli and she was rejected, for reasons unknown to me,” said Martinelli.

Later he added: “We would not like to think that this has anything to do with the political persecution that has been mounted on us and is going to tarnish the electoral process, which I hope is as clean and transparent as possible and does not become a campaign of persecution.” politics to remove opponents from the political arena.”

Numeral 4 of article 337 of the Electoral Code refers to the requirements that candidates for president and vice president must meet, which must not be included within the impediments or conditions of ineligibility indicated in articles 192 and 193 of the Political Constitution. Both parts of the articles refer to the ineligibility of relatives in the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity of the president of the Republic, both to be President or vice president of the Republic.