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A shakeup on the Chilean right. This is how it can be interpreted in an announcement known tonight from Pablo Longueira, who in a two-page statement announced both his resignation from the UDI, and to be a candidate for the Constitutional Convention.
“After a dark maneuver carried out on the last day that the registration of the candidacies was closed In the internal election of the party, which prevented me from being a candidate for the UDI Presidency, I asked my lawyers to study whether there was any inability to be a candidate for the Constitutional Convention, ”the letter begins.
And he adds that “last week I received the report that included the consultation of prominent constitutionalists and lawyers specializing in administrative matters, who concluded that the reform was clear in the sense that only those who have lost citizenship are excluded. The Constitutional Reform allows those who, without having been convicted, since they have not yet been able to exercise the right to defend their innocence in an Oral Trial, have lost the right to vote for being accused with an afflictive penalty. That is my case “.
“What they did all conclude was that I should do it as an independent within the pact because the legality of my affiliation to the party could be questioned and my candidacy could be disabled.. If I could not register the candidacy as an independent, they recommended me not to apply ”, he explains.
Longueira faces a judicial process in the framework of the Soquimich case – where he is accused of bribery and consummated tax crimes.
“It is difficult for there to be a single Chilean more checked, even going so far as to have my home raided, simultaneously with that of my secretary and my office because two days before I rejected, once again and definitively, the agreement that the Prosecutor’s Office offered me . What did you find? Nothing. Because it is impossible to find something that never happened (…) I have faced a brutal image murder campaign by the Public Ministry for not having accepted an agreement. I have never committed the crimes that accuse me ”.
The discharges are taken part of the writing: “I am, since the new penal system was implemented, the Chilean that has been formalized the longest. It is so absurd that, without having yet had the right to defend myself in an oral trial in court, I was already convicted, illegitimately losing my right to vote. The judge himself at the hearing pointed out that the suspension of suffrage did not apply in my case. I still do not know what happened later for that sentence to be applied to me ”.
He explains that on January 6 he asked the Servel to invalidate his affiliation to the UDI, and then to present himself as an independent candidate. “The Servel approved it in its Council on the same day Wednesday but required that, it also had to submit a letter supporting the request of the President and the Secretary General of the Party. I called the President immediately, but he did not answer the phone. I called other members of the management team to see that they send the letter urgently, which was immediately visible. Despite the insistence, until Friday at 7 pm it had not been sent ”, he says.
The statement concludes by saying that “never in my life have I longed for a position, which I held and which were not few, I did so because I believed that it served my country. Not a few years and effort I devoted with the other founders to form the party that they lead today. After 7 years of being away from politics, I believed that it was a duty to return to the public, thinking that I could contribute to a transcendental challenge for the country. Today I am clear that you do not think the same. Therefore, I want to inform you that I will not be a candidate for the Constitutional Convention ”.
And as a final point he adds: “Given what happened, I also come to present my resignation to the membership of the Independent Democratic Union.”
