The Supreme Court (SC) says that the Constitutional Council (CC) is totally incompetent to enumerate the functions of the courts and curtails its decision-making powers in electoral processes that it is dealing with. According to the TS spokesperson, the TS itself and the CC are at the same level of hierarchy, both being sovereign organs of the state.  

"We [the TS] are courts. We are sovereign bodies. We are not a mailbox or a transit point for files from one body to another. A court's job is to decide. It's not to send documentation from one entity to another," Pedro Nhatitima began by saying in an interview granted to STV.

He explained that, as a result, the judge or the courts have the interpretative power to validate or annul an electoral process. Only in cases where the parties involved in the process do not agree with the decision taken by the district courts can the CC intervene by lodging an appeal.

"What isn't right is for [the CC] to come out and say [that the courts] don't have that competence [to decide or annul elections]," he stressed, noting that, in principle, when a court decision has become final "that circumstance shouldn't be susceptible to further examination, since there has been no appeal."

He was answering the question about the TS's understanding of the CC's declaration on November 24 that the CC is the only body competent to validate the elections.

In his opinion, there was a misunderstanding in the CC's interpretation of its power to intervene in judged cases. But he also said that this was an opinion expressed by the CC. He recalled that the nature of the CC is that of a negative legislator. "That is, it only has the power to repeal. The positive legislator is the Assembly of the Republic".

"So the Constitutional Council can't come and [indicate] the competences of the courts. It would be interfering in the legislative function. It is the Assembly of the Republic and no one else who has to say what the competences of the courts and other sovereign bodies are. For the Constitutional Council to come and list the competences of the courts is completely incoherent, [and even annoying for the TS]," he stressed.

According to Pedro Nhatitima, there is no hierarchy between sovereign bodies, such that the decision-making power of a district court judge is the same as that of a judge advising the SC or the CC.

Faced with the situation in which the CC is taking over decision-making powers, Nhatitima believes it is necessary to relieve the courts of electoral matters "if not to give them the proper powers".

"If necessary, the legislation needs to be clarified in this regard. If not, we should rethink another model in which the courts are not involved in this process," he suggested, revealing that "this is the general feeling of the administration of justice system with regard to what happened in the last elections".