TAR confirms ruling on Lombardy election
Court says its decision not linked to govt decree
09 March, 18:17
(ANSA) - Milan, March 9 - Lombardy's highest administrative
court on Tuesday confirmed a ruling reinstating incumbent
regional president Roberto Formigoni's slate in elections later
this month.The TAR court said its decision was not linked to a controversial government decree approved late Friday which set guidelines on how courts should interpret election-filing procedures.
Formigoni's slate, linked to Premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party and the Northern League, was initially barred from running by two lower courts for bureaucratic irregularities with signatures. TAR judge Adriano Leo said he had "not even read the decree", which was published Saturday as the court prepared to rule on the case.
He said the decision giving Formigoni the go-ahead was "unconnected to the decree", which sparked a furore among the centre-left opposition and raised doubts among jurists that it may be unconstitutional.
Leo said the court's decision was based on a 1968 law and subsequent amendments which regulate electoral procedures and appeals against exclusions.
"Deliberation on the issue at hand took place before the publication of the decree in the official government gazette and consequently the court did not take it into account".
The opposition has announced plans to hold demonstrations on Saturday against the decree, which it says is illegal and tailor-made for the premier's party.
Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the Italy of Values (IdV) party, has also blasted President Giorgio Napolitano for signing the decree, saying his okay was tantamount to backing a sort of legislative "coup". Meanwhile, the PdL's problems are far from over since the TAR court in the Lazio region on Monday upheld a lower court's decision excluding the party from running in the Rome province.
Lazio's TAR said only the government's decree had no bearing since regions had competence in their own elections.
Renata Polverini, the centre-right government candidate for Lazio president, said she wasn't qualified to judge if the vote there could be postponed after TAR's ruling.
"I don't have the foggiest idea. I'm not a jurist," said Polverini, a trade unionist. Polverini said she was hoping, instead, that a Rome court's elections office would later Tuesday reverse the disqualification of the PdL's Rome provincial slate, which was due to a filing blunder last week.
Despite the disqualification of the Rome PdL provincial candidates linked to her, Polverini is already on the ballot in Lazio.
She does not need a new ruling to run for governor, but PDL candidates in Rome and its province do.
Those candidates are already on the ballot in the rest of Lazio.
Polverini has appealed to the highest administrative court, the Council of State, raising the possibility that the Lazio vote might be postponed till after the other 12 of Italy's 20 regions vote on March 28-29.
The regional elections are seen as a test for Premier Silvio Berlusconi amid signs that his popularity may be slipping.
