Rivera Lassén seeks legislative seats for MVC if Minority Law is activated

Citizen Victory Movement General Coordinator Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, who was the Alliance candidate for resident commissioner in this month’s elections, with running mate Juan Dalmau Ramírez, the Puerto Rican Independence Party-Alliance candidate for governor. (Facebook via Juan Dalmau Ramírez)

By The Star Staff

Citizen Victory Movement (MVC by its initials in Spanish) General Coordinator Ana Irma Rivera Lassén has asked Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) President Juan Dalmau Ramírez to set aside legislative seats for the MVC if the Minority Law is activated to increase minority representation in both chambers.

Under the minority law, if in a general election more than two-thirds of the members of either chamber are elected from one political party or from a single ticket, then members of minority parties who obtained more than 3% of the vote for their gubernatorial candidates can obtain additional seats.

The number of members of the Senate or of the House of Representatives or of both houses will be increased by declaring elected a sufficient number of candidates of the minority party or parties to bring the total number of members to nine in the Senate and to 17 in the House of Representatives, according to the law.

The Minority Law is activated after the scrutiny or recount of votes.

Rivera Lassén said she asked the PIP, in writing, to give the MVC some of the seats it may be picking up in the Legislature.

“How would it be? That is a discussion and that discussion must be held with the PIP,” the senator said in an interview on Radio Isla. “I think it is a very good discussion. It is a discussion that will be the subject of some legal articles, whether it happens or not.”

Article 1014 of the Electoral Code provides that, after the general scrutiny, the State Election Commission (SEC) must, first, certify the 11 at-large senators and 11 at-large representatives, as well as the two senators per senatorial district and one representative per House district.

Once this occurs, the SEC must determine the number and names of the additional candidates from the minority parties that must be declared elected.

Rivera Lassén acknowledged that dividing seats among the PIP-MVC Alliance “is complicated.” Dalmau was second in the voting for governor in the November election.

“As a lawyer, I tell you that, if it happens, it is complicated, but it could be done,” she said. “I would not doubt that it would end up in court either. Still, our history in Victoria Ciudadana [Citizen Victory] has had a lot to do with the courts and, in fact, because we say things and do things that challenge institutionality. Many times, they take us to court, or we take them to court.”