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Hours before the Parliament of Catalonia decides whether or not to accept the decision of Spain's Central Electoral Commission on the disqualification from his MP status of the Catalan president, Quim Torra, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) has demanded that the sovereignty of the Catalan chamber be maintained and guaranteed.

In a statement issued on Sunday night in support of Torra and parliamentary speaker Torrent, in the face of the "new interference by the Spanish state" the ANC has reiterated that the Commission is simply an electoral administrative body and it is "only the Parliament of Catalonia which may or may not suspend a President of Catalonia. Also, it affirms that under no circumstances must the electoral body be allowed to decide on the mandate of elected parliamentary representatives.

Given this, says the ANC, the largest of Catalonia's pro-independence organizations, the Catalan Parliament must respect and defend "the sovereignty which [the Catalan people] have deposited in it." The ANC considers that the action by Torra at the origin of the dispute, the "Free political prisoners" banner he hung on the Catalan government palace was "in fulfillment of the duty to report a breach of political rights", a breach which had been denounced by the ruling of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The Electoral Commission move, says the ANC, is a new attempt to "modify the political will" expressed by the citizens of Catalonia through their votes. In addition, the pro-independence body demands that the content of the parliamentary resolution on the subject passed on January 4th be applied, and urges the Bureau of Parliament to guarantee the rights of Quim Torra, as an MP and as president, and thus to guarantee the sovereignty of Parliament.

On 4th January, in the special session of Parliament held to respond to the crisis, the three pro-independence parties JxCat, ERC and the CUP, who have a parliamentary majority, passed a resolution that ratified Quim Torra as a Catalan MP and as President of Catalonia.

 

The ANC has also announced imminent protest mobilizations in defence of the sovereignty of the people of Catalonia and against any attack on this by the Spanish state.