Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos disqualified one of the three Bogota mayor candidates on the shortlist handed to him by Polo Democratico, the political party of suspended mayor Samuel Moreno.
Santos’ judicial secretary told the political party that candidate Mariella Barragan Beltran is unfit because of her current position as Development secretary in the capital’s battered government.
The President on Friday warned that two of the candidated were “possibly unfit,” which led to accusations by the opposition party Polo Democratico that Santos was deliberately delaying finding a replacement for Moreno.
While the President picks a mayor of the socialist party’s shortlist, Santos’ conservative Education Minister Maria Fernanda Campo is in place as acting mayor of Bogota.
Polo Democratico will present an alternative third candidate on Wednesday, after which the President can elect who will be Bogota mayor until the October elections.
