The Administrative Tribunal of Antioquia ratified the 2011 election of Governor Sergio Fajardo Thursday after a petitioner demanded the election be anulled over the awarding of a lucrative city contract.
Colombian citizen Pablo Bustos tried to annul Fajardo’s 2011 election because of his alleged participation in the awarding of a contract worth more than $1.1 million between the Carulla Foundation, the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, and the Municipality of Medellin. Fajardo was a board member of the Carulla Foundation, an organization dedicated to the promotion of childhood education.
“The plaintiff considered that because [Fajardo] was a board member of the foundation, he was unqualified from participating in the decision-making of the award of this contract,” explained the President of Antioquia’s Administrative Court, Judge Rafael Dario Restrepo. “Even though the governor was a board member of Carulla [Foundation] at that moment, he did not sign and had no knowledge of the contract that is being used against him,” he added.
Bustos has two days to request an appeal in which case the department’s highest administrative court will reexamine the case.
Governor Fajardo was the target of death threats June 7, resulting in the evacuation of his office. Fajardo blamed the threats on his efforts to rid Antioquia of political corruption.