Colombia’s Inspector General’s Office has removed 729 candidates in October’s local elections because they were previously barred from holding public office, local media reported.
The Inspector General’s Office has requested the National Electoral Council to remove these candidates from the October 25 ballots.
The candidates who simply sought to ignore administrative law include one aspiring governor and 14 mayoral candidates, the remainder seek elected posts in province assemblies or city councils.
The banned governor candidate is the independently running William Orozco Torres, a former mayor from the central Guaviare province.
None of the barred mayoral candidates were vying for office in a major city.
In total, the records of some 113,426 aspiring governors, mayors, deputies and council members were checked to see if they had legal impediments to run for public office.
The candidates were only checked for administrative offenses registered by the Inspector General’s Office. According to conflict monitor NGO Paz y Reconciliacion, 140 of the registered candidates have or have had ties to criminal organizations.
Links between Colombia’s politics and crime far from being a thing of the past
The Inspector General’s Office is in charge of disciplinary investigations of public officials and has the authority to bar them from public office if finding irregularities.
The office reportedly also sent the list also to Colombia’s political parties who had endorsed the candidates in spite of them being barred from office.