Electoral Board strips MP status of suspended parliament speaker

The Electoral Board has decided to strip the MP status of Laura Borràs, the president of the pro-independence party Junts and suspended speaker of the Catalan parliament.

News of the decision first broke on Wednesday night but Borràs was informed of the Electoral Board's word on Thursday. 

She will now be ousted from her position as chamber speaker after being sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for helping a friend secure public contracts without tender before becoming the parliament speaker.

Catalonia's High Court also barred Borràs from holding public office for 13 years after she was found guilty of forging official documents, being the initiator of the crime of commercial document forgery, and administrative breach of official duty for splitting contracts to avoid public tenders favoring her friend and IT specialist Isaías Herrero, who pled guilty after securing a deal with the prosecution.

At the time of the events for which she was convicted, Borràs was head of the Institute of Catalan Letters (ILC).

The next name on the candidature list for Junts per Catalunya in Borràs' constituency of Barcelona will be given an MP seat.

Former far-left pro-independence CUP MP Pau Juvillà was stripped of his seat following the same procedure in January 2022, with the electoral board eventually ordering him to be removed from his post, as was the case with ex-Catalan president Quim Torra, of Borràs' party, Junts per Catalunya, in early 2020. 

During the text to the Catalan parliament, the electoral board cited the precedents set by the Juvillà and Torra cases as both politicians were stripped of their positions in Parliament before the Supreme Court handed down a decision on their appeals. 

It also cited article 6.2 b of the LOREG electoral law, which states that anyone who has been convicted of "rebellion, terrorism, crimes against the public administration or state institutions" and barred from office is ineligible for a public post even if their sentence can still be appealed. 

Borràs criticizes media leaks

Earlier on Thursday, Borràs regretted that she first learned of the Electoral Board's decision through the media. The story was first reported by Spanish newspaper ABC and was later confirmed by the Catalan News Agency. 

"I refuse to normalize it," Borràs tweeted. "We are talking about a violation of rights. And whoever normalizes it, collaborates," she added.

She also said that she first found out about "all" judicial information through leaks in the media.

Parliament bureau calls meeting

The Catalan parliament have also been officially notified of the Electoral Board's move and Alba Vergès, who has been acting as the parliament speaker since Borràs' suspension last summer, called a chamber bureau meeting to discuss the topic shortly afterward. 

The group have decided to present an appeal against the decision, similar to the steps taken after former CUP MP Pau Juvillà was stripped of his MP status.

Partial pardon request

While the Catalan High Court sentenced her, judges also asked the Spanish government to partially pardon her to reduce her sentence by two and a half years, thereby avoiding prison time.

This legal mechanism is used when the court understands that it must impose a certain penalty, but at the same time, considers it excessive, in this case, because "it does not allow for sentence reduction procedures."

Borràs remains free as the sentence from March 30 has been appealed before the Supreme Court, where it will have to be upheld for her to be imprisoned. It could still take months for her to learn the outcome of the appeals process.

10 days to Parliament

The electoral board decision to oust Borràs comes two weeks after the board gave the Catalan parliament 10 business days to determine suspended speaker Borràs' status following her corruption sentence.

However, the chamber rejected ousting the pro-independence politician Laura Borràs as chamber speaker after the sentence.