The Inspector General’s Office sent a list of 477 independent candidates with pending investigations to the National Electoral Council (CNE) to be removed from the ballots, Colombian media reported Monday.
While political parties have already identified and removed more than 2,000 candidates from the elections for having criminal backgrounds, the Inspector General’s Office requested that the National Electoral Council (CNE) remove additional candidates who never received endorsements from parties.
According to Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras, the CNE will review the list and remove the candidates from the election.
The Electorol Monitoring Commission also announced Monday that they are investigating 900,000 voter registrations for transhumance, when people register to vote in districts other than where they live. Of these nearly one million registrations, the commission has already revoked 57,000.
The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) recently pointed to Antioquia as being especially vulnerable to election fraud and transhumance. The observers found that 95% of registered voters in the town of San Luis were not residents.