Appeals against proclamation of candidates and candidatures

1. After proclamation any excluded candidate and representatives of proclaimed candidatures or of candidatures whose proclamation has been denied may within two days lodge an appeal before the competent Administrative Judge (Juzgado de lo Contencioso-Administrativo) against the decisions of the Electoral Commissions. Petitioners must set out in their appeal the reasons they see fit and append all relevant pieces of evidence.

2. The time limit for lodging the appeal contemplated in the preceding subsection shall run from the date of publication without prejudice to mandatory notification to representatives of candidate or candidates rejected.

3. The judge’s decision, which is to be pronounced within two days from the appeal, is final and there shall be no appeal against it, without prejudice to the individual protection procedure (procedimiento de amparo) before the Constitutional Court. To this end the lodging of the protection petition shall be deemed as compliance with the requirement laid down in Section 44.1.a) of the Constitutional Court Institutional Act.

4. Individual protection must be applied for within two days and the Constitutional Court must determine the petition within the three following days.

5. Petitions under this section may also be lodged in cases of proclamation or exclusion of candidates submitted by electoral groupings referred to in subs. 4 of sect. 44 of this Institutional Act, with the following provisos:

a) The appeal referred to in subs.1 of this present section shall be laid before the Special Chamber (Sala Especial) of the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) provided for in Section 61 of the Judiciary Power Institutional Act (Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial)2.

b) Said appeal can also be lodged by any person entitled to petition for declaration of illegality of a political party under paragraph 1 of Section 11 of the Political Parties Institutional Act. Petitioners shall have access to all documents in possession of the Electoral Commissions.

c) If in the course of electoral campaign parties entitled to lodge a petition gain knowledge of facts which would under Section 44, sub,4, of this Act, prevent the submission of candidates, the delay for lodging of petition shall be extended to the forty-fourth day following the date of call of the election. The Special Section of the Supreme Court must render its decision within three days from the filing of the petition.

Provided that prohibition under Section 71, sub.2, of printing ballot papers for the candidates concerned shall not apply in the last case.
 5. ADDED BY 2ND ADDITIONAL PROVISION. OF INSTITUTIONAL ACT 6/2002, OF JUNE 27, AND
AMENDED BY SECT.5 OF INSTITUTIONAL ACT 3/2011, OF JANUARY 28

² Sect. 61 of said Institutional Act laying down the general structure of the judicial organization makes provision for a special chamber consisting of the President of the Supreme Court, the Presidents of the different Chambers (i.e. divisions) thereof and the longest-serving as well as the most recent member of each of them, entrusted among other duties with the adjudication of legal proceedings on alleged unlawfulness and resulting dissolution of political parties brought in under Political Parties Institutional Act 6/2002, of June 27 (Ley Orgánica 6/2002, de 27 de junio, de Partidos Políticos).