Argentina's Supreme Court suspends upcoming elections in 2 provinces

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO CITY (AA) - Argentina's Supreme Court decided Tuesday to suspend elections for governor in two provinces set for May 14 after the legitimacy of the candidacies from the ruling party was called into question.

According to the Supreme Court, Sergio Unac of San Juan province and Juan Manzur of Tucuman province could infringe on Argentine law since both candidates have already overstayed their mandates as governors and deputy governors in their provinces.

The court’s decision followed accusations from Juntos por el Cambio, a political coalition opposed to the ruling party, that both candidates' re-elections infringed their provinces’ constitution.

Unac, who is running for a third term as governor, served as vice-governor in 2011 and as governor since 2015, being re-elected in 2019, violating the province's electoral statute, which establishes that the governor and the vice-governor serve for a term of four years and can only be re-elected consecutively up to two times.

Manzur is running for the vice governorship. If elected, he would begin his fifth term in the government of Tucuman, having served already two times as vice-governor and two times 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.