TC declares invalid the call for the V National Congress of Chega

The Constitutional Court (CC) declared the convening of the V National Assembly of Chega invalid after an objection from a third party activist.

According to the decision, which Lusa had access to, the judges at Ratton Palace decided to “uphold the present challenge and therefore invalidate the December 10, 2022 discussion of the National Committee of the Chega Party, in the part in which it approved the Electoral and the operational regulations of the Fifth National Assembly of this party and in which he proceeded to convene the activists of this party to convene the Fifth National Assembly for an extraordinary session.

This congress was held in Santarem from 27 to 29 January and was convened after the rejection, including by the Constitutional Court, of Chega’s statute, a decision made known last November.

Consequently, with the annulment of the notice, the decisions made by this assembly are null and void, including the election of new bodies and the re-election of André Ventura as president.

The decision was made after an objection was filed by activist number 3 Chegi Fernanda Marquez López, who had already applied to the National Judicial Council of the party, but had not received a response.

The National Cheg Congress was convened by the decision of the National Council of the Party, adopted at a meeting on December 10 last year.

The Tax Code states that at this meeting the National Council “had a composition that violated” the charter of Chega that was in force at that time (since 2019), “since its elected composition included 70 (seventy) people’s councilors. […] when the number of those members provided by law was only 30 (thirty) National Councillors.”

When questioned during a press conference, Chega leader Andre Ventura said he was not aware of TC’s decision, but mentioned that “another” convention would probably have to be held.