Magistrate Beatriz Rallo, from Civil Court 4 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has rejected the petition from the Bloque Nacionalista Rural (BNR) and Samuel Henríquez, a councilor from San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The request aimed to suspend the agreement made by the National Political Council of Nueva Canarias-Frente Amplio (NC-FAC) on December 22, which labeled elected officials who left the party, including Henríquez, as “defectors.”
The plaintiffs sought the immediate suspension of this agreement to prevent its communication to local councils, which would result in the affected councilors becoming “non-attached.” This status would significantly limit their economic and political rights, as they would not be entitled to greater benefits than those they would have received had they remained with their original group, Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista.
Primero Canarias councilors argue that while they left Nueva Canarias, they did not abandon the entire electoral coalition, which included other parties like the BNR, to which they now claim allegiance. However, the judge denied the request, finding that the plaintiffs did not meet the requirement of “appearance of good law.”
The ruling is based on the provisions of the Anti-Defection Pact, which explicitly states that within a candidacy promoted by a coalition, an elected person who leaves the political party that proposed their incorporation (NC-BC) is considered a defector, even if they join another part of the coalition (BNR), “provided they do so without the consent of the original party.
The magistrate emphasized that the plaintiffs failed to provide the statutes of the party Samuel Henríquez left and that there was no evidence that Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista consented to his move to the BNR. The ruling indicates that this departure, “not foreseen in the coalition pact,” appears to be “a transgression and a fraud of law.”
The judicial decision orders the BNR and Samuel Henríquez to pay legal costs, although the ruling is not final and can be appealed before the Provincial Court of Las Palmas. This judgment intensifies the ongoing debate in Santa Lucía de Tirajana, where Mayor Francisco García and five other councilors who joined Primero Canarias are trying to avoid being labeled as defectors.
