The Area Electoral Board has partially upheld the complaint filed by Nueva Canarias regarding the events organized by the Cabildo for the centenary of César Manrique, as they coincide with the pre-election period. Thus, although it has not agreed to suspend the events, it has warned that candidates may not participate in these events, and could otherwise "incur liability under electoral regulations."
Thus, both the president, Pedro San Ginés, and the Minister of Culture, Óscar Pérez, who are running in the upcoming elections, may only attend these events "as private citizens," according to the agreement adopted by the Electoral Board. "The repeated or continuous public intervention of people involved in the electoral process is not admissible," adds the resolution, which recalls that there was already a presentation of the events and insists that subsequent interventions "are unnecessary for the performance of the activity of the Island Council or for the celebration of the specific events planned."
Regarding these events - which Nueva Canarias denounced as "basically a succession of concerts" that have little to do with a tribute to Manrique and that CC uses as an "excuse to conduct its electoral campaign with public money" - the Electoral Board points out that it "exceeds its functions" to pronounce on the "convenience or not of the public corporation" organizing these events. Thus, "without entering into opportunity assessments about the programmed events," because it indicates that it is not within its competence to authorize events, it adds that in this case it cannot order their suspension either "due to the damage to the public interest and to the affected third parties, in addition to the foreseeable economic damage that could be incurred to the institution's assets."
"Its free nature suggests a massive attendance"
However, and given "the public significance that the planned events may reach due to their free nature, which suggests a massive attendance," it does address that part of the complaint from Nueva Canarias, warning that electoral regulations must be strictly complied with at these events, without them being used as an electoral campaign by the candidates of the party currently governing the Cabildo.
Regarding the other issue that Nueva Canarias denounced, relating to the logo that the institution presided over by San Ginés has used for the centenary, replacing the two zeros of the 100 with two C's, the Board dismisses it. Thus, despite the "partial coincidence" of that 1CC with the initials of Coalición Canaria, it concludes that "they do not in themselves imply identification with this formation or assimilation of institutional advertising with it."
In this regard, it refers to previous resolutions of the Central Electoral Board that indicate that "to prevent identification or confusion with electoral formations, attention must be paid to the set of identifying data such as acronyms, denominations, symbols, etc.," and concludes that "there is no appreciable similarity of forms, typographies or colors" between those used by the Cabildo for the centenary of Manrique and those used by Coalición Canaria, beyond that "coincidence" in the acronyms.
