Nine members of the General Council of UTAD in Vila Real have requested the suspension of an order by the Minister of Education, Science, and Innovation, dated October 20, which established an electoral commission to organize and call elections for this body responsible for electing the rector.
The departure of the previous rector, Emídio Gomes, at the end of September, intensified the institutional crisis at UTAD, which has been ongoing since March due to a deadlock in the formation of the General Council of the Transmontana academy.
The Administrative and Fiscal Court of Mirandela decided to “reject outright the present precautionary measure” according to a sentence accessed today. The court argued that the applicants “by filing the present precautionary process instead of an electoral dispute action, made a procedural error, which solely annuls acts that cannot be salvaged.”
Other arguments from the court include that the ministerial order dates back to October 20, meaning the seven-day period for filing the action ended on the 27th of that month. However, the precautionary measure was only filed on October 28 at the Administrative Circle Court of Lisbon.
“Given the above, the initial application must be rejected due to a procedural error, which cannot be remedied due to untimeliness for the appropriate procedural means,” concludes the sentence.
The Lisbon Court was found “territorially incompetent” to review the precautionary process, hence forwarded it to the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Mirandela, where it was filed on November 25.
Mirandela corresponds to the residence area of the applicants in the process.
The process involved nine authors, targeted the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation, and the counter-interests included UTAD, the remaining nine councilors of the General Council, and the seven individuals proposed to be co-opted members of the university’s body.
On October 6, the Minister of Education appointed Jorge Ventura as the interim rector of the institution to ensure the continuity of university governance until institutional normality is restored.
From that date, the General Council was given eight days to initiate the election procedure for a new rector, which did not occur, and on October 20, the Electoral Commission was appointed.
This intervention, according to the ministry, is provided for in the Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions in cases of a severe institutional crisis that cannot be overcome within the framework of autonomy.
The ministry further clarified that the Electoral Commission cannot perform routine management acts nor intervene in the cultural, scientific, and pedagogical autonomy of UTAD and will cease to function with the inauguration of the new General Council.
The composition of the General Council, the body that elects the rector, remains incomplete because, in March, the method of voting for co-opted members, by a show of hands and tie-breaking vote of the interim president of that body, was challenged in court.
In a decision announced on September 26, the North Central Administrative Court rejected the adopted voting method and mandated the reopening of the co-option procedure by secret ballot and deliberation by the absolute majority of elected councilors, in accordance with the General Council’s internal regulations.
Meanwhile, the seven individuals proposed for co-option appealed, as counter-interested parties, the decision of the North Administrative Court to the Supreme Administrative Court.
