The investigation against President Gustavo Petro in the National Electoral Council, for alleged irregularities in the financing of his 2022 campaign, took an unexpected turn this Thursday – April 24 – after the Constitutional Court will make the decision to suspend this process, after a guardianship filed by the national president.
Through car 554 of 2025, the High Court ordered the provisional suspension of the investigations advanced by the electoral authority against the Head of State, in response to a guardianship action filed by the president himself, in which he requested the protection of his right to due process, specifically in his dimensions of natural judge and special constitutional jurisdiction.
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According to Petro’s defense, allowing the CNE to investigate it does not know its jurisdiction, which establishes that only Congress, through the Research and Accusations Commission of the House of Representatives, can investigate to the president through behaviors committed during his mandate or related to his election.
In that context, the Court suspended the effects of the decision issued on August 6, 2024 by the Civil Council and Civil Service Chamber of the State Council. In this providence, the Council of State resolved a conflict of powers between the CNE and the Accusations Commission, endorsing that the electoral body continue with the investigations against the President.
President Gustavo Petro
While a precedent feels, it should be clarified that the decision of the Constitutional Court It is provisional, but of great impact, since it freezes the progress of the administrative process while studying the guardianship in file T-10,871,254. In addition, it orders the suspension of the terms of prescription of the process in the CNE, which will only be resumed once the final judgment of the Court is notified.
In other words, the high court stopped the process against Petro for its electoral campaign, at least temporarily. Providence seeks to ensure that Petro’s claim is evaluated without irreversible legal effects in the meantime.
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The decision was adopted by majority, but it was not unanimous, since four magistrates of the Court saved their vote, that is, they expressed their disagreement with the measure: Natalia Ángel Cabo, Paola Andrea Meneses Mosquera, Jorge Enrique Ibáñez Najar and José Fernando Reyes Cuartas, leaving on the table that inside the high court exist exist different visions on the limits of the presidential jurisdiction and the scope of the competencies of the CNE.
After this decision, a legal debate that has been latent since the arrival of Petro to power is reactivated: Who can investigate the president in exercise for facts related to his election? And although the CNE has electoral control functions, the Constitution establishes that the inquiries to the President must go through Congress, which has been interpreted as an institutional armor to protect the presidential investiture.
Constitutional Court
From the government, it has insisted that the presidential jurisdiction not only protects to the president of arbitrary actions, but establishes specific control channels, in this case through the Legislative. However, opposition sectors have questioned this position, arguing that it can be used as a barrier of impunity against possible irregularities.
The process before the CNE arose after complaints about alleged inconsistencies in the financial reports presented by the then candidate Gustavo Petro during his candidacy and subsequent presidential campaign. Although no sanctions have been issued, the case generated political and media noise, being used by government critics as a sample of opacity in the management of electoral resources.
With this decision, the Constitutional Court does not pronounce on the bottom of the matter, but it makes it clear that there is a relevant legal controversy that must be resolved with special care, given the institutional hierarchy of the actors involved. Meanwhile, the file is frozen and a waiting compass opens to know the final sentence.
