Pro-statehood lawyer files complaint challenging ‘Alliance’

Pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa

By The Star Staff

With fewer than 40 days before the general election, pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa has filed a complaint with the electoral comptroller against the “Alliance” formed by the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and Citizen Victory Movement (MVC) to exchange their votes for one party’s candidate to the other party’s candidate, contending it violates local and federal laws.

It is the second time since last year that the legality of the Alliance has been challenged.

According to Igartúa’s complaint filed last week, the Alliance agreement is an illegal federal and state conspiracy to defraud electoral laws and the voter’s vote through false representation. It should not be allowed to pass unchecked.

“Consider the case of the MVC voting for the PIP’s Juan Dalmau [Ramírez] for governor in exchange for his party voting for the MVC’s candidate for resident commissioner, Senator Ana I. Rivera Lassén,” Igartúa said. “The scheme is not limited to high electoral offices but includes candidates at various lower political levels.”

The complaint includes advertising instructing voters on how to vote for the Alliance.

Leaders of both parties have argued that the Alliance is constitutionally legal under the veil of free speech rights protected by the First Amendment.

“However, this is not a case of mere free speech by the candidates,” Igartúa said. “This has its limits, especially when, as in this case, the conduct interferes with other constitutional rights. The Alliance is a violation of the equal protection of the laws and the rights to due process of law under the United States Constitution.”

“When considering the political damage to candidates from other parties that do not conspire, the equal protection of the laws and their rights to due process are affected in the result of the elections by the illegal agreement of the leaders of the PIP and the MVC, that is, by the political manipulation between both parties to give a manipulated advantage to their candidates,” he said in the complaint.

Igartúa also said the Alliance is a fraudulent scheme in its use of public funds because each party is an independent recipient of state funds through a false representation of having conspired with a quid pro quo agreement to exchange and swap their candidates.

“They provoke and obtain a political-financial advantage over the other parties,” he said.

“The conspiracy attempts to defraud our democratic system by manipulating the votes of the electorate, including voting under a scheme where the support for some candidates of one party are exchanged and/or swapped for the support for candidates of the other, and vice versa, a violation of federal and state law,” the lawyer said.

Citizens can legally vote through what is known as a mixed vote, whereby a voter votes for candidates of different parties on the same ballot in the same election.

“However, an agreement between the leaders of two parties to induce their members to cast a mixed vote on the same ballots for one candidate for an office in exchange for a vote for a candidate of the other party is illegal,” Igartúa said. “It is a gerrymandering agreement to try to gain advantages for the candidates of each party by defrauding the electoral process, and it is made worse if each receives public funds.”

Under federal law, there are damages where two or more people have conspired to deprive another of the equal protection of the law or the same privileges and immunities of the law.

In the Alliance, the PIP and MVC conspirators defraud the electoral process and cause damage to candidates from other parties that are not part of the conspiracy or the political scheme. In this context, the gubernatorial candidates of the New Progressive Party (Jenniffer González Colón), the Popular Democratic Party (Jesús Manuel Ortiz González), and Proyecto Dignidad (Javier Jiménez Pérez) are adversely affected by the PIP and MVC conspiracy to vote for Dalmau Ramírez, as well as by candidates at other levels.

Igartúa said the Alliance violates his rights as a voter, as well as those of other U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, to equal protection of the laws and due process of law by benefiting, contrary to the law, its candidates with illegal schemes that the other candidates of voters’ preference do not practice, he said.

Neither the MVC, the State Elections Commission, nor the electoral comptroller responded to requests for comment.