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Article 121
 

121.1. The cases of assumption of the election will be resolved through special procedures that should be established by the Executive Secretariat of the Institute.


121.2. The assumption of the responsibility for a local election will only be applicable when it is conclusively proven that any of the following situations occur in the respective proceedings:


a) When there are diverse social factors that affect the public peace or that put the society in grave risk in the state that the petitioner claims affect the constitutional electoral principles of impartiality, certainty, legality, objectivity and equality in the electoral competition and that, therefore, impede the competent Local Public Body from carrying out the organization of the election peacefully, and


b) That the appropriate political conditions do not exist for the Local Public Body to be able to execute all stages of the electoral process with impartiality, due to provable interference or meddling of any of the branches of government in the state that illegally affect the organization of the electoral process by the Local Public Body.


121.3. The procedures of assumptions begin with a justified and motivated petition before the Institute, of at least four of its councilors, or the majority of the council of the Local Public Body. The petition for total assumption can be presented until before the start of the electoral process.


121.4. The initial document should contain:


a) The name and address of the actor;


b) The accreditation of the identity of the applicants through the appropriate documentation;


c) A narrative of the facts that motivate the petition for assumption, in which it should be specified which conditions impede that the election should be organized by the Local Public Body and which electoral principles are considered to be violated;


d) Evidence that con f rm the narrative and the petition for attraction, and


e) The date and signature.


121.5. Once the petition has been received, the Executive Secretary will register it and publish it on the Institute’s website. In case the initial document lacks any of the elements listed in the previous paragraph or that there is a lack of clarity in the document, the Secretary will within two days notify the actor so that he can correct it within forty-eight hours.


121.6. The Executive Secretariat, within the four working days following the reception, or after the request has been completed, will issue an agreement to start the procedure in which it determines its admission or dismissal due to being obviously inappropriate and will summon the Local Public Body to appear in the procedure to present, where applicable, the evidence or defense statements that it considers appropriate, this without prejudice to ordering the investigation and gathering the evidence it considers relevant.


121.7. The Executive Secretary can dismiss the petition for assumption as inadmissible when:


a) It was lodged by a person who lacks the legal capacity to do it;


b) It is frivolous, that is, the facts and arguments turn out to be irrelevant, superficial or petty;


c) A previous procedure for assumption has already been resolved on for the same local electoral process;


d) Circumstantial evidence that con f rm the claims of the actor were not presented, and e) The petition was lodged outside of the timeframe established in this Law.


121.8. The petition for assumption will be dismissed when the situation that caused it has disappeared.


121.9. For this procedure, the following are admitted as evidence: a) Public testimonies before the electoral clerk; b) Public and private documentary evidence; c) Technical evidence, and d) Legal and human presumptive evidence.


121.10. The General Council will decide on the draft resolution submitted by the Executive Secretariat before the corresponding local process starts, assessing the elements that have been reported that affect any or several of the constitutional electoral principles that motivated the request for assumption.


121.11. In the stage of investigation and presentation of evidence of the procedure, apart from the evidence presented in the procedure, the opinions of all the political parties that participate in the process, of the branches of government of the State and of any other political actors who could influence the process will be taken into account.


121.12. In the investigation, the Executive Secretary could gather information and assistance from the competent authorities and from public opinion in order for them to be taken into account when making the decision.


121.13. The decision of the assumption of the local election will be approved, where applicable, by at least a majority of eight votes of the Electoral Councilors with the right to vote and can be appealed to the High Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal.


121.14. Once the local electoral process has begun, it is not possible to start the procedure for assumption of the election.