Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro can no longer be voted out of office after having surpassed 18 months in office, according to Colombia’s Constitution, local media reported on Monday.
Although the electoral route is no longer possible to remove the ex-guerrilla turned politician, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos still has the power to remove the mayor and replace him with a politician of his choice, according to news website Pulzo.
A case similar to this possible outcome was seen in the removal of ex-mayor of Bogota Samuel Moreno, who was removed for a “contract carousel” scandal in 2011 and was replaced by fellow partisan Clara Lopez, who carried out the rest of Moreno’s term, reported national newspaper El Tiempo.
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Petro was replaced by President Santos’ Minister of Labor and Liberal Party figure, Rafael Pardo, for one month, who was then replaced by Maria Mercedes Maldonado, a candidate chosen by Petro’s Progressive Party.
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After Maldonado spent one day in office, Petro was reinstated by a Bogota court following an order by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights.
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