The Provincial Electoral Board has agreed to suspend, as a precautionary measure, the printing of ballots for the Congress and the Senate of the Unidad del Pueblo Canario (UPC) coalition for the elections on next November 29, pending a determination by the courts as to whether its initials could cause confusion with the Unión del Pueblo Canario party, which obtained representation in the Cortes in 1979.
In its ruling, the electoral body has ordered “to postpone the preparation of the ballots for the Congress” and “all” those of the Senate in “Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote”, by treating them as “open lists” and “affecting the preparation of all the concurrent political formations”, according to the document released this Friday.
The measure is adopted after the Drago Canarias organization filed this Thursday a contentious-electoral appeal with the Contentious-Administrative Courts of Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife against the proclamation agreement of the Unidad del Pueblo Canario (UPC) coalition for “inducing confusion among the electorate and usurping the current and historical initials of sovereignist politics in the Canary Islands”.
Drago Canarias considers that the article 46.4 of the LOREG is “blatantly” violated, which establishes that “the submission of candidacies must be made with names, initials or symbols that do not induce confusion with those belonging to or traditionally used by other parties legally constituted”.
In its challenge, the organization maintains that the initials used by the coalition promoted by Nueva Canarias, Podemos, Izquierda Unida and Movimiento Sumar under the initials UPC for 29N could “induce confusion among the electorate and usurp the current and historical initials of sovereignist politics in the Canary Islands”.