A judgment in the first instance issued by the Fifth Chamber of the Administrative Court of Antioquia ordered the National Registry endorse within a period not exceeding eight days the signatures collected by the promoter committee of the initiative to advance the recall against the mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero.
According to the court, even though even the National Electoral Council (CNE) does not endorse the accounting statements of the recall campaign, said the entity nor does it have the power to decide the fate of the citizen participation mechanism contemplated in articles 40, 103 and 259 of the Political Constitution.
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The error is given in response to a compliance action filed by the lawyer Nelson Hurtado Obando, who put forward as the main argument that the members of the CNE they do not have the investiture of magistrates and that therefore they cannot interfere with the process.
“The fact that they open investigations or charge us does not stop the revocation. They can investigate me whatever they want, but The 305,000 citizens have the right to go out and vote for the recall of Daniel Quintero and demonstrate that we do not want this man to misgovern us,” said Andrés Rodríguez, one of the leaders of the process.
Rodríguez was charged by the electoral body at the end of April after considering the existence of irregularities in the accounting statements of the recall campaign.
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As this is a first instance ruling, it is subject to appeal. and eventually if the process reaches the Council of State, the high court must issue any decision before the end of the year, since December 31 is the deadline to summon citizens to the polls.
In the event that the Registry decides not to appeal the judicial decision and complies with what is ordered in the ruling,the revocation of mandate must be carried out within a term not exceeding two months counted from the certification issued by the entity, according to article 33 of Statutory Law 1757 of 2015.
