Argentina's Supreme Court suspends upcoming elections in 2 provinces
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Loading... - Mateo Santino
- 10 May 2023
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Argentina's Supreme Court has made a decision to suspend the upcoming governor elections in two provinces slated for May 14th due to the questionable legitimacy of the ruling party's candidacies. The court claims that Sergio Unac of San Juan province and Juan Manzur of Tucuman province could be in violation of Argentine law as both candidates have exceeded their mandates as governors and deputy governors in their respective provinces. The Supreme Court's ruling was made following accusations by Juntos por el Cambio, a political coalition that opposes the ruling party, stating that both candidates' re-elections go against their provinces’ constitution.
Unac, who is seeking a third term as governor, previously served as vice-governor in 2011 and has been the governor since 2015, being re-elected in 2019, which goes against the province's electoral statute. The statute mandates that the governor and the vice-governor serve for four-year terms and can only be consecutively re-elected up to two times. Manzur, on the other hand, is running for the vice-governorship and, if elected, would serve his fifth term in the Tucuman government, having previously served two terms as vice-governor and two terms as governor.
As ruled by the Supreme Court, each province must deliver a report on the situation within the next five days before the judges can determine a resolution. Both candidates are running under the ruling Justicialist Party. The Supreme Court's decision was criticized by President Alberto Fernandez, who dismissed the ruling and accused the judges of siding with his political opposition. "In a clear interference in the democratic process and the autonomy of the provinces, the Supreme Court of Justice today aligned itself with the opposition to anticipate what was foreseen as possible Peronist victories in the provinces of San Juan and Tucuman next Sunday," he said.
