Harsh sanctions will be imposed on those who intend to “sneak” into peace seats

After the legislative elections of March 13, which have already been officially scrutinized by the Registrar's Office, Emilio Archila, Presidential Advisor for Stabilization and Consolidation, announced that drastic sanctions will be imposed on those who intend to sneak into peace seats.

“The European Union has been accompanying the process for a long time and fortunately we have the peace courts, which are an additional guarantee that if irregularities have occurred, they can be dealt with quickly,” Archila said.

Thus, the government official Duque warned that the authorities will defend the right of victims to occupy a representative place in the Congress of the Republic, and said that the perpetrators cannot occupy peace seats.

“We have foreseen the most severe sanction there is in electoral matters, which is the loss of the chair, if for some reason there were irregularities in the funding or registration of how the process was advanced, not only will that person be withdrawn, but whoever presented it will not have the option of replacing it,” he added.

More than 50 victims will file the relevant complaints to Congress and the National Electoral Council so that Jorge Rodrigo Tovar, son of the paramilitary 'Jorge 40', does not reach the legislature.

“The seat is not for the children of the perpetrators.”

Thus, they will demand the credential obtained by the now-elected representative of the House for the Special Transitional Peace District (Citrep) number 12, after having obtained 14,900 votes, which made him the congressman who will represent the victims of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá in the Congress of the Republic.

This fact has been severely questioned by public opinion and victims' associations who claim that they do not feel identified by the son of one of the bloodiest criminals in the history of Colombia and that is why they announced that they will go before the authorities to revoke Jorge Tovar's election.

“We are already preparing so that now that the Congress of the Republic begins its sessions, we will have a debate in the Senate, where the candidates who signed the letters of resignation will express to the country their disagreement with the credential earned by the son of a highly feared perpetrator in this region,” said Dayro Bayona, spokesperson for victims, in dialogue with Noticias Caracol.

Likewise, another group of 53 victims announced that they will send a petition to the National Electoral Council (CNE) in which they not only reject Tovar's election as a parliamentarian in that constituency, but also denounce alleged irregularities that he would have incurred in order to win his seat.

This was confirmed by Eduar Álvarez, one of the candidates for that peace venue, which is now in the hands of the son of the former paramilitary chief. “We will sue him for buying votes, for fretting votes. People from the banana area were brought to vote. People from other municipalities were brought to vote. The votes were tracked,” said the former candidate in testimonies compiled by the newspaper El Nuevo Siglo. In turn, Álvarez who revealed Tovar's alleged strategy to reach the Colombian Congress.

“There were explicit coalitions between 'Yoyo' Tovar and House candidates and that was forbidden. It was forbidden to buy votes. A community that was supporting me in the end told me that I couldn't because 'Yoyo' Tovar was doing the way for them,” he explained.

It should be clarified that this group of victims, contrary to the first complainants revealed in the news report, say that they will not demand the election of Yoyo Tovar because he is the son of Jorge 40, but because of his possible electoral fraud. “He has to be questioned because of what he did in the campaign. Such complaints should reach the National Electoral Council. We are going to present them at least 53 victims,” added Eduar Álvarez.

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