Conservative Party vice-presidential candidate Luis Ernesto Mejia denies allegations that he helped finance Andres Felipe Arias’ unsuccessful campaign through donations from his company, according to La FM.
Mejia, who is Noemi Sanin‘s running mate, admitted that his family business donated $1 million to Sanin’s election fund, the Colombia Cambio Corporation, and $1 milion to the Conservative Party in November 2009, but said that he was unaware of whether they helped the Arias campaign.
The former presidential hopeful said he will take full responsibility if the National Electoral Council decides that any irregularities took place.
“I am the legal representative of one of these companies but the decisions they make are beyond me and I’m not assuming responsibility simply because I have not … had a say in such decisions,” said Mejia.
President of the National Electoral Council, Marco Emilio Hincapie, said that it was illegal for companies to provide contributions to political campaigns and that “a possible penalty could be financial in nature.”
Andres Felipe Arias said that the allegations, made by journalist Daniel Coronell were old and that Coronell needed to explain the drug money contributions his communications comapny had received.
“The truth is that mafia money has gone into his company and no one has disproved this information,” said Arias.