The far-right party of Colombia’s President Ivan Duque wants to postpone the May 29 presidential elections.
The Democratic Center party and its main ally, the Conservative Party, proposed to postpone the elections during a meeting of the so-called “Special Electoral Surveillance Commission” on Monday.
The fascists and the conservatives claimed that National Registrar Alexander Vega failed to provide “enough guarantees” for free and fair elections.
According to Senate President Juan Diego Gomez, “the Registrar’s Office altered the results of the March 13 elections in favor of the Historical Pact,” the opposition party of progressive presidential candidate Gustavo Petro.
The conspiracy theory of “Colombia Transparente,” an alleged NGO of an attorney called Sergio Alzate, is also supported by far-right former President Alvaro Uribe, conservative former President Andres Pastrana, who has been trying to suspend Vega.
Moderates alarmed
Senator Rodrigo Lara
Interior Minister Daniel Palacios ruled out a government attempt to postpone the elections, claiming this was “unconstitutional.”
Under no circumstances are we thinking of postponing the day of the presidential elections, that would be unconstitutional.
Interior Minister Daniel Palacios
Palacios’ claim failed to ease the concerns of Senator Rodrigo Lara, the campaign chief of moderate candidate Sergio Fajardo, who warned about the ongoing attempts to suspend the national registrar less than two weeks before the elections.
“We are seeing a lot of pressure from friends of the government to take action and remove or suspend the registrar,” Lara told newspaper El Espectador.
Fajardo’s campaign chief warned that a successful attempts to suspend Vega could provide the pretext to postpone the elections.
When an ad hoc arrives on the eve of the elections, it is perfectly possible to claim that the tests, the scrutiny mechanism or the models are malfunctioning. On this pretext, they would seek a postponement.
Senator Rodrigo Lara
Vega’s increasingly weak position
National Registrar Alexander Vega (Image: Twitter)
The position of the national registrar has weakened considerably after the congressional elections that were marred by irregularities.
W Radio reported on Wednesday that the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a classified preliminary investigation into Vega on undefined charges.
The prosecution investigation followed investigations by Inspector General Margarita Cabello and the Council of State that were announced in April.
Vega’s 2019 election by the presidents of the top courts was allegedly illegal and could result in a decision to revoke the result of this election.
Local media reported last week that the Council of State is unlikely to rule on the legitimacy of the national registrar before the elections.
