Parliament to appeal Electoral Board's potential decision to remove speaker's MP status

The Catalan Parliament will present appeals against the potential decision of the Electoral Board (JEC) to remove the MP status of suspended parliament speaker, Laura Borràs, of the pro-independence Junts per Catalunya party.

The aim of the move is to defend regulations of the chamber, which only provide for removing parliamentary seats in cases of final sentences, and to defend the autonomy of the chamber as they view the JEC as a body without the authority to remove an MP's status.

So far the electoral has given the Catalan parliament 10 business days to determine suspended speaker Laura Borràs' status.

This follows her four-and-a-half-year prison sentence and 13-year disqualification for corruption, which she will appeal before the Supreme Court, meaning that the sentence is not final yet.

This means chamber bureau vice president, Alba Vergés of Esquerra Republicana (ERC), who has been acting as speaker since Borràs was suspended last summer, will have to inform the electoral board of any parliamentary "decisions, resolutions or any other measures" that are taken by April 27, as was announced last week.

Bureau representatives from pro-independence ERC, Junts and CUP voted in favor of presenting appeals, while those from the Socialist party voted against it, who say there have already been two Supreme Court decisions that give the JEC the right to remove parliamentary status without final sentences - the cases of former Catalan president Quim Torra, and former CUP MP Pau Juvillà.