Colombia’s interior minister confirmed Monday that an electoral reform the government plans to present to Congress still does not permit congressional seats for guerrilla group FARC with whom the government is seeking a peace deal.
Despite rumors of the new Electoral Code allowing the FARC’s participation in politics, Interior Minister Fernando Carrillo has made it clear that it does not, according to newspaper El Espectador.
In a radio interview, Deputy Interior Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo explicitly said that “political participation and such issues can only be made ??by an amendment to the Constitution that is authorized only by the President.”
Therefore, despite changes in the Electoral Code which “seek to unify the electoral laws issued over the past 26 years,” the FARC’s tentative participation in congress would be wholly based upon the outcome of the upcoming peace talks.
Peace talks will be held first in Oslo, Norway and continue in Havana, Cuba starting in the second week of October.