Constitutional court rules exiled MP cannot delegate parliament vote

Spain’s Constitutional Court has annulled the Catalan parliament bureau's decision to allow the delegation of the vote of Junts per Catalunya MP Lluís Puig.

Puig has been living in exile in Belgium ever since the peak of the independence crisis in 2017, but was part of JxCat’s electoral list in the last election and won a seat in the lower chamber. 

Since then, he has been able to delegate his vote to party colleagues, but that will no longer be the case following the ruling of the Constitutional Court.

Following an appeal by the leader of the Catalan Socialists, Salvador Illa, the court has annulled the agreement of the parliament speaker dating from March 25 last year that permitted the former culture minister to delegate his vote. It has also annulled the agreement of the chamber bureau the following day which confirmed vote delegation was permissible. 

According to the court, the two agreements violated the right of the Socialists and other MPs to exercise representative functions and of citizens to participate in public affairs through their representatives.

The parliament bureau will address the court’s ruling in a meeting on Tuesday morning before the afternoon plenary session.