The composition of the new Congress is still not defined: why has the CNE not delivered the Afro, Indigenous, and Cundinamarca seats?

The National Electoral Council (CNE) is about to complete its counting tasks. It has already finished the presidential and Senate counts and is very close to certifying the entire Chamber. However, it has not been able to complete all its work before the end of its four-year term due to some complications with the Chamber votes in Cundinamarca.

In March, the official allocation of almost all the Chamber seats in the country was made. Only the seats of Chocó, Cundinamarca, and the indigenous and Afro constituencies remained pending. The first two have generated intense legal debates within the electoral tribunal. Chocó was only decided this Saturday, which allowed the official promulgation of the Senate count this Tuesday.

However, the legal discussion continues regarding Cundinamarca, which has delayed the declaration of the other pending seats. The dispute is over the last seat of the department, which currently holds 7 places in the Elliptical Hall, held by the Historic Pact (3), Democratic Center (1), Conservative Party (1), and Liberal Party (1).

The last seat was under discussion between Radical Change, the Liberal Party, and Mira. The reason is that the differences between these parties were very close. On Saturday, the electoral tribunal tried to resolve the legal tangle but failed. Magistrate Álvaro Hernán Prada presented a proposal that was rejected. In that document, he proposed that the seat be assigned to Radical Change.

The discussion was marked by a harsh controversy, as the proposal in question was leaked on social media. Both Mira and the Liberal Party warned that this decision had no basis in the March 8 election results. Both parties issued statements raising alarms.

Amid the alerts from both parties, the full chamber of the electoral tribunal rejected Magistrate Prada’s resolution proposal. It was determined that the claims of the party of the late Germán Vargas Lleras were not sufficient to surpass in votes the two parties in dispute, Liberal and Mira.

With the proposal defeated, it was left in the hands of the next in the list order, Magistrate Alba Lucía Velásquez. It was expected that the magistrate would present a final text this Wednesday to end the debate once and for all, but she was challenged by Radical Change, the party to which Prada was awarding the seat.

The CNE as a whole rejected the challenge today, and it is expected that between Thursday and Friday a proposal can be made. For now, Mira would have a slight advantage in the votes, by about 100 votes, which would give it the seventh seat. However, the Liberal claims could reverse the situation and have this party keep two seats in Cundinamarca. Everything is in the hands of Magistrate Velásquez and the decision she projects.

Besides being the last ordinary seat in dispute, the Cundinamarca issue has also delayed the delivery of the seats of the Afro and indigenous constituencies. Although there has been speculation about alleged irregularities and huge differences in the votes for these special seats, various CNE sources confirmed to EL TIEMPO that the only reason for not delivering them is that the entire Chamber must be completed first. The last to be granted are these national-character Chamber constituencies.

JUAN SEBASTIÁN LOMBO DELGADO

Political reporting