Texas Governor Greg Abbott seeks court order to fire top Democrat who fled in row over voting map

Texas governor Greg Abbott said he took legal action to withdraw dozens of democrats who had fled the state to block a plan to redraw the electoral borders.

He filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of Texas aimed at dismissing the Democratic legislator, Gene Wu, which he called the “leader” of a plot to “divert the government from the State.

While the file focuses on WU, Abbott said in a statement that the departure and refusal to return from more than 50 Democrats “constitute the abandonment of their office, justifying their withdrawal”.

The redrawn map of the Congress would create five other republican seats in the House of American Representatives of Washington DC, where the Republicans have a slim majority.

“The Democrats of Texas House have abandoned their duty towards Texans, and there must be consequences,” the governor said in a statement.

At least two thirds of the state legislative body of 150 members in Texas must be present to vote. The quorum became inaccessible after more than 50 Democratic legislators fled the state this weekend.

“The court’s decision will determine whether only a third of the legislature can dictate the result for 100% of the Texans,” said the trial.

He argues: “Most people who do not present themselves on several occasions for work are dismissed. Civil servants must be held at the same level.”

The file requires the highest court of the State to grant a brief rarely used on the Warranto quo to oust Wu from his office.

Quo Garando is a legal action used to resolve a dispute as to whether a specific person has the legal right to occupy a public service.

The trial one day came after the Republican governor ordered that the absent democrats are arrested and returned to the state house so that a vote on the redistribution can go ahead.

Wu, who is president of Texas House Democratic Caucus, told Texas Tribune that a quorum was “not an abandonment of my office”, but “an accomplishment of my oath”.

He accused Abbott of having sought to “silence my dissent by removing an official duly elected from his functions”, and supported “my constitutional duty is not to be a voluntary participant”.

The trial asks the Supreme Texas Court dominated by the Republicans to make its decision by 5:00 p.m., local time Thursday – one day before the chamber session is planned.

The nine judges of the Supreme Court of Texas are republicans, and the chief judge was previously the Advocate General of Abbott.

The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, who pursues a separate action to have the seats of “vacant democrats” declared on Monday that the judicial process may be long and developed.

Paxton told a conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that to withdraw legislators, separate prosecution should be deposited against each in their individual counties.

“We had to go through a legal process, and we must deposit this perhaps in the districts which are not friendly with the Republicans,” said Paxton, according to the gallery.

“It is therefore a challenge because each district would be different.”

Democrats defended their decision to break the quorum.

Addressing BBC News from Chicago, the Democrat of Texas Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos said: “We must use all the tools at our disposal … to continue to protect our democracy.”