Electoral justice and criminal electoral jurisdiction

Article 314 Electoral Code stipulates that: “Once criminal electoral jurisdiction within the process, it will not be necessary to request its cancellation again in case the taxpayer regains jurisdiction for any other situation”.

According to some colleagues, this rule should be interpreted negatively for any person who, regardless of whether they have acquired new electoral competence, it is no longer necessary for judicial powerwhich broadcasts criminal proceedings against that citizen, demands or insists on the abolition of the new elective criminal jurisdiction and, faced with such an interpretation, realizes that, simply, the person is left out of control face criminal proceedings which corresponds to and on which occasion the elective criminal jurisdiction was abolished and that, in the same way, even when there are more than elective criminal jurisdiction in his favor, acquired or obtained after the abolition of the first, it does not protect him or favor the neglect of criminal proceedings in which case the original jurisdiction was abolished. Let us immediately see if this interpretation is compatible or not with the nature of the Panamanian electoral process and whether or not it is in accordance with democratic principles which they encourage patriotic constitutionalism.

First of all, let’s deal with electoral jurisdiction. It is a guarantee of protection of actors of the electoral process from any measure, be it labor, administrative or judicial with the aim of obstructing the exercise of the electoral function or their political rights, depending on the case. That’s how he orders and prescribes Article 304 of the said code. Based on this rule, the following jurisdictions are claimed to exist: 1.Labor jurisdiction, 2. Administrative jurisdiction and 3. Judicial or criminal jurisdiction. As the criminal electoral jurisdiction is of greater interest for the purposes of this article, let’s refer to it. It is undoubtedly a procedural guarantee, which indicates that it goes to a special procedural principle, which is added to procedural, legal and constitutional principles, for the registrant before the continuation or finality of the criminal proceedings against him. Therefore, it cannot be investigated, detained, arrested or prosecuted in criminal, police or administrative matters without express and prior authorization electoral court, except for the case of in fragtanti delicti. All that, as prescribed in Article 305 of the Panamanian Electoral Code.

Now, if the criminal proceedings are in progress, the citizen who faced him was terminated electoral criminal jurisdiction of the electoral courtprior request of a judicial body or a judge, and it turns out that the trial of that person is not held or not conducted within a reasonable time provided by legislation and agreements and treaties on human rights and with complete independence of the fact that the criminal process is still ongoing or ongoing, and before the start of the tournament or an electoral process typical of a general election in which the president of the Republic, vice president, people’s deputies, mayors and deputiesamong others, and since that person acquires new privileges through that election process, it will be clear that the judicial authority that knows the criminal process against the citizen can hardly ask for the cancellation of the election process again. jurisdiction, to the extent that it has already been requested and before which it was contracted by the parties electoral court, and not having a judgment as such, it could hardly affect these new electoral privileges, because it would lead to the displacement of electoral justice, in the first place, and then, unfortunately, to the neglect or neglect of the full exercise of political rights. of that citizen, basically the right to vote as a clear expression of the right to vote and be elected.

Conclusion: If a citizen who wants to participate in the election contest, on the occasion of this new tournament, acquires or wins new forums, it is not possible to raise them, and the one that has already been approved in the process that I will face is taken away from the matter due to the impossibility of annoying or ignoring of these new competencies bought by a citizen.

This implies or translates the idea that it is not possible nor can it be insisted that, by raising new laws that a citizen who is immersed in the criminal process has acquired, the new forums protect and protect him, i.e. and not the other essence or ratio essendi of what is regulated in Article 314 of the Election Law.

This follows from what was established in Article 142 of the National Constitution as soon as exclusive jurisdiction on Electoral court for the interpretation of the electoral law and that in order to guarantee it freedom, fairness and effectiveness of voting rightsin accordance with the right to choose and be chosen, the right to vote, which everyone has citizen (Art. 135 of the CC, God bless the Motherland!).