147 of the Constitution); Mayor and Deputy Mayor: THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED (Article 178 of the Constitution); Congresspersons of the National Assembly: they are allowed; Representatives to PARLACEN: they are allowed; and congresspersons in Autonomous Regional Councils (RAAS and RAAN): they are allowed. As a result, the constitutional provisions in which this electoral ban appears is only for the President and Vice-President and for Mayors and Deputy Mayors and constitutes unfair treatment, when it is clear that there is equality of terms, running counter to the principle of equality and the principle of proportionality, which recognizes that the only limitation is the one indicated in the dogmatic part by the Original Constitutional Convention, that is, age and a criminal conviction or civil ban. (…) As a result, the present Constitutional Chamber hereby declares nonapplicability, as of notification of the present judgment, of Article 47 (of the Constitution), solely in that part that literally reads in its entirety: “The following persons may not run for President or Vice President of the Republic: a. Persons who have exercised the full powers of the presidency at any time during the period when the election for the following term is held, nor anyone who has exercised them for two presidential terms (…). (…) The Supreme Electoral Council is instructed to deliver a certification to those citizens who appeared here, through the attorney Eduardo José Mejía Bermúdez, as citizens eligible to exercise their political, constitutional, and electoral rights in order to participate in the elections to be held in 2011 and 2012, in the same public offices in which they are currently serving, as candidates for President, Vice-President, Mayor, and Deputy Mayor, respectively, without any further requirements or conditions other than those pertaining to any other citizens on the basis of age or impediment on the exercise of citizen rights because of a final criminal judgment or a civil ban, pursuant to Article 47 of the Constitution, because according to the above-mentioned principle of unconditional equality of all Nicaraguan citizens: “It is the state’s obligation to remove all de facto obstacles hampering equality among Nicaraguans and their effective participation in the country’s political, economic, and social life.” (Article 48 of the Constitution). III. Because the constitutional provisions appearing in Articles 147 and 178 of the Constitution, amended by the Derived Constitutional Convention on the basis of Article 13 of Law No. 192, the Law on Partial Reform of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua, published on July 4, 1995, in the New Gazette, creates discrimination and an electoral ban for the President and Vice-President, as well as Mayors and Deputy Mayors, therefore clashing or producing a constitutional contradiction (…). 12 33. On January 9, 2010, President Daniel Ortega issued Executive Decree 3-2010 extending the terms of office of all state authorities and institutions, including those of the Supreme Electoral Council, on the basis of the following considerations: On February 2, 2010 the term of office of the judges of the Supreme Electoral Court expires and on March 7 of the present year regional elections are being held on the Caribbean seaboard of the Republic of Nicaragua; nevertheless the National Assembly has not called for elections pertaining to these public offices, which would make it difficult to declare citizens elected in elections in the northern and southern Caribbean regions of the nation. The electoral branch of government would also be without an executive on the first of June of this year, on the eve of the electoral process of the national elections of 2011.” 13 34. On September 29, 2010, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice referred the judgment to the plenary of the Supreme Court so that it would uphold it and as a result produce erga omnes effects. On the basis of judgment No. 06 of September 30, 2010, the plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice upheld judgment No. 504 in its entirety and declared the nonapplicability erga omnes of the constitutional provisions appearing in Articles 147(a) and (b) and 178. In said ruling, the Supreme Court of Justice set forth the following reasoning: (…) These provisions create an electoral ban on the president and vice-president of the republic and on municipal mayors and deputy mayors, which is a ban that IS NONAPPLICABLE to the other public offices elected by direct universal suffrage. (…) As a result, the constitutional provisions in which that electoral ban appears are solely for the president and vice-president, mayors and deputy mayors and constitute unequal treatment although it is clear there is equality of terms, running counter to the principle of equality and the principle of proportionality (…) 12 13 THE PRESENT SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE deems and ratifies that both the President of the Republic, Commander José Daniel Ortega Saavedra, and the mayors who came under the protection of Judgment No. 5042009, are eligible to run for office in national and municipal elections in 2011 and 2012, respectively, as well as in Judgment No. 504 of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, October 19, 2009. Decreto Ejecutivo No. 3-2010, Executive Decree No. 3-2010 adopted on January 9, 2010 by President Daniel Ortega Saavedra.