Next year, in October, regional elections will be held in Colombia. Mayors, governors, council members and mayors will be elected in these elections. There will be another ’round’ at the ballot boxes among the political forces of the country.
There are several people who have already put together their strategies to win. This is the case of Pacto Histórico, the coalition that President Gustavo Petro has come to power and hopes to continue to consolidate to secure the largest number of positions in those elections.
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Senate president Roy Barreras insisted several times: Pact lawmakers must give up their seats to run for mayor or governorship in the 2023 regional elections.
“Consolidating popular support for change means winning regional elections in 2023. A government party should support a majority in regional ones,” he said last Friday.
Therefore, he invited his colleagues back to Congress to resign as soon as possible if they were considering running. “I would like to remind all MPs who announced their intention to stand for election in 2023, that they must resign and that their resignation must be accepted before December 30. No one has submitted their resignation until now,” he said.
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Although Barreras assures this, Public Service Concept 2022 084331 states that an officer must resign 12 months before election to avoid disqualification to be eligible for a popularly elected position. So they were supposed to do this late, by October 29th at the latest.
The document states that “those who have served as public servants, jurisdictions or political, civil, administrative or military positions in the relevant municipality within twelve (12) months prior to the election date will be disqualified, or in the execution of investment resources that must be concluded or fulfilled in the relevant municipality, or in the celebration of contracts. those who have intervened as an expense manager as a public employee of the ministry or municipal order”.
Despite this, the senator said that to win next year’s election there must be “solid candidates committed to the progressive aims of President Gustavo Petro”.
That’s why he told his colleagues that those who want to take on the challenge of being willing should stop being suspicious. “Ducks into the water!” he commented.
Given this, Two key players of the Pact in Congress – and President Petro – stepped forward and closed the door to a possible nomination.
The first of these was David Racero, who claimed that he would not resign from the Assembly, of which he was the chairman, for the time being.
And he said, “The Historical Pact will be the head of the debate for the island of Bogotá and I will actively accompany the regions for the provinces and capitals. We will deepen the change agenda at the regional level.”
On the other hand, Gustavo Bolivar, Pact senator and one of Petro’s great aides, stated in a video that reaching the mayorship of the capital is not one of his short-term plans.
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What he has already decided is to leave the Legislature when the Presidency of the Third Commission comes to an end. So it will do after July 2023. This was confirmed to EL TIEMPO. But this will have nothing to do with elections, but with personal issues.
Panorama says it was difficult for him because “on the one hand, I have the support of many people, including my political bosses, and on the other hand, I have an urgent financial situation that forces me to return to my old job, namely to write my screenplays, TV series and films. “I didn’t do it thinking I’d be disqualified for the presidency. That’s not possible.”
Bolivar said he has the support and is confident he has what it takes to win, but he won’t start.
Of course, he invited one of his colleagues to launch. He asked Senator Alexander López to agree to run for governor of Valle. “He has the moral authority and the courage to take down the corrupt men and women in his department. We must save areas kidnapped by the mafia from looting and contracting,” he said. At this time, López did not show himself.
With these two outright rejections, eyes are focused on other possible candidates. For example, they suggested from the same coalition that Alexánder López agree to run for governor of Valle.
Roy Barreras said that in addition to Racero, María José Pizarro could run for mayor of Bogotá. In Barranquilla, parliamentarian Antonio Bohórquez, a member of the Pact coalition, is in a rattle, EL TIEMPO reports.
While the nominations were being determined, Senator Barreras reminded congressmen considering running that “they should resign before December 30 and their resignations should be accepted (accepted)”. So far, no one has submitted their resignation,” he said.
In this line of ideas, the question now remaining is whether legislators can still resign, as there is a legal debate on this possibility. Rafael Ostau de Lafont, the former head of the State Council, assures congressmen that they are running out of time for this. He explains that the incompetence and incompatibility regime norm for the cadres to be elected is 617 of 2022.
“The rule clearly says they have to wait a year before the election and they don’t have to just resign. The year counts from the time the resignation is accepted by Congress,” says Ostau de Lafont. In other words, they should have resigned before October 29, as did former senator Rodolfo Hernández, for example.
On the contrary, former delegate registrar and election adviser Alfonso Portela states that what has emerged in the case of congressmen is a mismatch with their position, which has emerged “to the extent that, if elected, the position will begin to apply.” For this reason, they must resign by 30 or 31 December 2022 so that the terms do not overlap.
For this reason, he says that it is true that a person should resign from his parliamentary position by the end of the year “in order not to encounter the incompatibility regulated in Article 181 of the Constitution”.
Portela then states that if a lawmaker resigns on December 31, 2022, he will “remain in parliamentary status until December 31, 2023”. do not cross.
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Aura Maria Saavedra Alvarez
POLITICAL ARTICLE
Source: Exame
