This Monday, February 14, the National Registry once once more endorsed the recall process once morest the mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero, following once once more reviewing the signatures delivered by the promoting committee.
Given the local president’s complaint regarding irregularities in more than 30,000 signatures, the Registrar’s Office reviewed them once more and determined that the promoter committee continues to meet the requirements to continue with the citizen mechanism.
In total, 383,685 signatures were submitted and following all the review processes it was determined that the valid ones are 132,574. The rest were canceled due to some kind of inconsistency.
Quintero had assured that the recall was dead. “More information is on the way regarding serious irregularities in the financing of the recallit really is dead, it is no longer a concern for us, ”said the mayor of the capital of Antioquia at the time.
For this reason, a significant number of legal actions have been instituted to stop this process since, in the mayor’s opinion, they never allowed him to review the signatures that were presented to revoke it.
In the midst of all this controversy that has been generated, the National Electoral Council must certify that the resources and accounts of the promoting committee are in order so that the recall process can continue without any problem.
Though the times are tight, It is not true that the process is “dead” as the mayor says because the inhabitants of Medellín can still be summoned to the polls to make a substantive decision regarding Quintero.
The truth is that if the polls are not called before December 31 of this year, the process would fall automatically, since by law this mechanism can only be applied in the second and third year of the mandate.
She had been suspended for alleged irregularities
The National Electoral Council (CNE) had already suspended the recall process once morest the mayor for alleged irregularities in his financing.
In an order dated January 13, with a speech by Judge César Augusto Abreo, and exclusively known by SEMANA, Said revocation was suspended until the findings on the financial actions of ‘Más Medellín’, the committee that promotes Quintero’s departure from office, were not distorted.
The CNE then called a virtual public hearing for Wednesday, January 26 at 10:00 am for the mayor and Jorge Alejandro Posada Jaramillo, a member of the ‘More Medellín’ promoting committee.
The certification of the accounts is a mandatory requirement for the revocation process to continue. This is made clear by Law 1475 of 2011 (political reform), which in article 15 states that in order for the Registrar of Civil Status to deliver the certification of the revocation, he must comply with this procedure.
“The corresponding registrar will not be able to certify compliance with the constitutional and legal requirements when the promoter has not delivered the financial statements within the period contemplated in this law or when the financial statements reflect that the campaign exceeded the individual and general financing ceilings allowed by the National Electoral Council,” the rule states.
Medellín is experiencing an unprecedented political moment in its recent history. After being governed by mayors with high popular acceptance and described as a model city, the capital of Antioquia is the scene of a strong battle between the defenders and opponents of Mayor Daniel Quintero. In the middle is a recall process that might reach the polls in an election year, which would have implications for the elections to Congress and the Presidency.
In the city, the obligatory topic of conversation is the fate of the revocation and whether it is justified or not. Some streets are flooded with anti-Quintero posters and, obviously, tempers are running high among the political and business classes. The president has raised the tone in his confrontation. “This process is full of hate, revenge,” he says.
