Colombia’s Congress Prepares to Elect Judges of the National Electoral Council

The Electoral Organization in Colombia is made up of two bodies: the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the National Civil Registry. Both entities were subjected to major tensions in the last presidential elections because their actions, data and information were questioned by then-President Gustavo Petro. The CNE will get a respite because it will renew the magistrates who make it up.

By mandate of Colombia’s Political Constitution, the CNE is composed of nine magistrates who are elected by Congress for a four-year term. This will take place next Tuesday, August 25.

There are 28 candidates nominated to replace magistrates

Its mission is to promote the country’s democratic sustainability through the design and implementation of efficient and timely mechanisms for the surveillance, inspection and comprehensive oversight of electoral activity, in relation to the actions of all the actors involved in it, as well as the protection of opposition rights.

The pressures it faced in recent months were due to the fact that it is an autonomous and independent body. This allowed it, for example, to determine that Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign violated the spending limits established by law and received prohibited financing. The electoral body sanctioned the campaign’s leaders and the parties in the Pacto Historico coalition.

There are 28 candidates nominated to replace the nine CNE magistrates. The distribution of the seats is based on the representation of the different political parties’ caucuses in Congress. Those elected will have to oversee the upcoming electoral processes, mainly the elections for mayors and governors in October 2027.

But the CNE has other functions, such as monitoring campaign financing, defining the legal status of political groups and reimbursing votes, in addition to other powers related to electoral oversight.

For that reason, the election of the nine magistrates not only represents a new distribution of forces within the electoral body, but could also have an impact on the decisions adopted during the upcoming electoral cycles.

List of candidates from the different political parties

Since the composition of the CNE depends on the representation held by political parties in the legislature, adding their seats in the Senate and House of Representatives, the left-wing Pacto Historico party, led by former President Petro, would be entitled to more seats, with two for that political group. The other political forces with greater representation will have to compete for the remaining seven.

The nominations are as follows: the Liberal Party registered Adriana Franco, Alejandro Vega, Campo Prieto, Carlos Marchan, Cristian Camilo Castro, Daniel Pinzon, Maria Victoria Tafur and Silvio Jose Carrasquilla.

For the Salvacion Nacional party, which endorsed current President Abelardo de la Espriella, Jose Antonio Parra was nominated. The Conservative Party nominated Juan Carlos Wills; and the Mira and Centro Democratico parties nominated Nubia Stella Martinez and Plinio Alarcon.

Meanwhile, the En Marcha party nominated Guillermo Rivera; while Pacto Historico presented former representative Alirio Uribe, former superintendent Cielo Rusinque and former secretary of the Accusations Commission Jairo Fabian Corzo. It also nominated William Villanueva, Reynaldo Dussan, Ricardo Agudelo, Ana Maria Bautista and Gabriel Bustamante.

Cambio Radical nominated Gersel Perez, and the candidate from the La U Party is Juan Felipe Lemos.

In the days remaining before the election takes place, the resumes of the candidates will be reviewed before they are put to a vote in the full Congress.