By The Star Staff
The State Elections Commission (SEC) has not yet evaluated a complaint against the Alliance (Alianza de País) formed by the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP by its acronym in Spanish) and the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC) that pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa filed over 40 days ago arguing that the political parties’ agreement to “exchange votes between the parties’ candidates” violates local and federal laws.
Igartúa said Sunday he has received no explanation as to the SEC’s inaction, other than that it has not been evaluated. The SEC did not answer requests for comment.
The Aguadilla-based lawyer filed the complaint in September challenging the legality of the Alliance, calling it a conspiracy to defraud electoral laws and the voter’s vote through false representation.
“The scheme is not limited to high electoral offices but includes candidates at various lower political levels,” Igartúa said. “Consider the case of the MVC voting for PIP’s Juan Dalmau for governor in exchange for his party voting for the MVC’s candidate for resident commissioner, Senator Ana I. Rivera Lassén.”
The complaint included advertising instructing voters on how to vote for the Alliance.
Leaders of the MVC and the PIP have argued that the Alliance is legally constitutional 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 terms of the 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 exchanging and swapping their candidates.
“They provoke and obtain a political-financial advantage over the other parties,” he said.
Perhaps the pro-statehood lawyer should listen to Mr. Trump (and the Republicans allies) think and say about PR before he keeps pushing our country into another abysm. Probably, after Mr. Hinchcliffe's no-joke PR being "a garbage island," the lawyer might want to reconsider his distorted vision of what the US think about PR and reoriented his energies toward PR dignity and authenticity.