Anti-Corruption Institute denounced Duque for “violating the ban on participating in politics” against Petro

After the many comments that the head of state, Iván Duque, has made in relation to the proposals of presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, the Institute Anticorruption announced that it filed a lawsuit against the president for alleged undue political participation in the framework of the elections that will define his successor.

According to what the entity expressed, which ensures that there are abuses of power and the lack of transparency of public officials in Colombia, Duque would have participated in at least eight opportunities in improper practices by giving a direct opinion on what the candidate of the Historical Pact is proposing.

The popular action against the president, which was given before the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca, has within its annexes the Law on Guarantees, which reminds the servants of state entities that they are prohibited from participating in politics, in this case, the head of the Presidency of the Republic.

For the Anti-Corruption Institute, which is mainly composed of civil society, the Colombian president has repeatedly violated the rules of electoral guarantees and therefore believes that there should be corrections against him. “We, as a civil society organization, view with concern the deterioration in democratic standards, it is flagrant, bordering on the obvious that the president has violated the rules on electoral guarantees in at least eight moments,” they said.

Moreover, they say that both in “social networks or public presentations and in statements to the media” President Duque “has sought to influence the citizens' decision in the current electoral process.”

“Their actions violate the country's administrative morality and democratic institutions. Duque's attacks on candidates opposed to his political edge and the amplification of his messages call for immediate measures to reduce the distortion of the balance that the President of the Republic is called to maintain in the electoral process leading to the election of his successor,” the organization added in its demand.

After these arguments, they announced what they are asking the supervisory bodies about the alleged faults of the president, who will leave power next August.

“We ask to order the President of the Republic in a parenterial manner to refrain from intervening in the electoral process or from expressing positions on the candidates' claims, proposals or approaches. We call for precautionary measures to avoid irremediable damage to the integrity of the democratic system,” they said, asking the Cundinamarque court for Duque to apologize.

In the request, Duque was asked not to comment on the elections and therefore urged the National Electoral Council (CNE), the National Commission for the Coordination and Monitoring of Electoral Processes to carry out appropriate oversight on the subject.

It is not the first that President Duque has received such complaints. In fact, just a week ago, the senator-elect of the Historical Pact, Iván Cepeda, announced that he filed criminal complaints against the head of State for the alleged political intervention to favor the candidate for the presidency of the Team for Colombia, Federico 'Fico' Gutiérrez. According to Cepeda, the head of state “has not fulfilled his constitutional and legal duty to act neutrally during the presidential election.”

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