An important trial, which in any case will create jurisprudence and have a political impact, was held today at noon at the Supreme Special Court, an Electoral Court before which appeals were discussed regarding the legality of the Spartan party’s participation in parliament.
During the proceedings, the president of the Spartans party, Vasilios Stigas, was present, who appeared before the supreme judges in an attempt to refute the argument that behind the Spartans is the imprisoned Ilias Kasidiaris, who, based on the court’s first-instance decision, is serving his sentence for running a criminal organization. According to the content of the appeals, the Spartan party entered the Parliament, violating the electoral legislation and damaging the validity of the elections.
The head of the Spartans claimed that they are not Kasidiaris’ straw men, as did the other two deputies of the party in question who were present.
However, the lawyers who supported the appeals made extensive reference to the violations of the electoral legislation, they argued that the validity of the elections has been damaged by the participation of the Spartans and their subsequent election and to this end they invoked the criminal investigation of the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office which is in full swing with calls from all party MPs to account for cheating the electorate.
“The prestige of the elections has been undermined”
The constitutionalist Costas Botopoulos pointed out that this case will in any case create case law regardless of the decision of the Supreme Special Court. And this is because, as he explained, it is essentially asking for the sidelining of a party, clarifying that their orders are not directed against the MPs personally.
Costas Botopoulos stated that the objection is based on the Constitution and its provisions on the validity of elections and the fundamental provision that specifies the validity of the electoral process. “The crucial concept is the validity of the electoral process which your court is exclusively competent to examine as the guardian of the validity of the elections” he said characteristically adding that the validity of the elections was eaten. In addition, the Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adelini’s letter to the Parliament regarding the lifting of the immunity of the Spartans’ MPs was cited, in which she directly speaks of cheating the electorate.
With regard to the thorny issue, as he characterized it as a question of how to distribute the seats, Mr. Botopoulos argued that the most suitable way to replace the deputies of the “Spartians”, if, for the above reasons, they fall, is to occupy the corresponding seats by the first cross candidate of the party that had the largest undistributed balance in the given constituency.
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