16 senators, comprising 14% of Colombia’s Senate, should be banned from voting for the Inspector General, claimed the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) on Thursday.
The director of MOE, Alejandra Barrios, filed the petition making the claim that 12 of the senators are currently under investigation and should subsequently be prevented from voting, while the remaining four senators should be prohibited because they have family relations within the Inspector General’s Office.
The majority of the senators undergoing investigation are members of the National Unity Party, commonly known as the U Party, while 11 of the 12 under scrutiny are also known to be part of a coalition in favor of the re-election of the current Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez, Caracol Radio reported.
The 16 Senators MOE objected to partaking in the Inspector General election adds up to 14% of Senate. Caracol claimed that if elections were held today including the votes of the senators in question, Ordoñez “would be re-elected by at least 69 votes.”
Inspector General Ordoñez’s four year term will end this year in which he will either be re-elected or a new Inspector General will be elected starting next year in his place.
The Inspector General has also recently drawn a lot of media attention and controversy revolving around contentious statements he has made, mostly involving abortion. Ordoñez has since retracted several of the statements, one of which he called sexual education campaigns “mass campaigns to promote abortion as a right.”