TC insists that Chega's internal elections are invalid

The Constitutional Court (TC) rejected the appeal filed by Chega against the February decision that declared invalid the election of national bodies at the party's VI convention, in Viana do Castelo, in early 2024.

According to the ruling from last May, which the Lusa news agency had access to today, the judges at Palácio Ratton decided to “deny the appeal” filed by Chega, thus confirming the invalidation of the election of the national bodies at the VI National Convention of the Chega Party, which took place between January 12 and 14, 2024.

In October of last year, the Constitutional Court had also invalidated the election of the party's national bodies held at the penultimate convention, which took place in Santarém in January 2023.

In a note sent to Lusa today, activists Gregório Teixeira and Fernando Nóbrega warn of "the extremely serious illegal situation in which the party finds itself." These two activists have previously filed lawsuits challenging the election of Chega's board and national bodies elected at the 6th Convention.

Both filed lawsuits challenging Chega's internal elections, with Fernando Nóbrega's being the first to receive a court ruling – invalidating the election of the national bodies – and Gregório Teixeira eventually withdrawing his.

Chega activists say they are "exhausted from witnessing, since 2019, a repeated pattern of internal manipulation, lack of democratic scrutiny, and total control of the party by André Ventura, who has led it as a personal and autocratic project."

"With the judicial annulment of the 2024 elections, Chega finds itself without any valid governing bodies. Its current structure is null and void in the eyes of the law. The only legally subsistent bodies are those from the party's founding in 2019, of a technical and provisional nature, whose legitimacy ceased long ago," they add.

Activists also emphasize that this decision is final and cannot be appealed.