The Seventh Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá protected the rights of a group of citizens who
They demanded that the two candidates for the presidency debate their respective government programs.
Consequently, the court orders the presidential candidates Rodolfo Hernández and Gustavo Petro to request and
schedule jointly, no later than Thursday, June 16, 2022,
the holding of a 60-minute presidential debate through the Colombian National Radio Television Public Media System, RTVC.
The plaintiffs claimed that
both Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández refused to attend
to debates scheduled in different media, thus violating the “fundamental right of citizens to participate in the formation of political power enshrined in article 40 of the Political Constitution.”
While Petro announced through Twitter that he was suspending his “presence in electoral debates until the transparency of the vote is guaranteed”, the engineer Hernández did the same claiming that he would not attend debates because he did not want to “to be a participant in these polarizing and hateful dynamics”.
Both positions violated the guarantee of the democratic principle according to which the candidates must present their ideas to the voters.
The ruling indicates that the engineer Rodolfo Hernández opposed the guardianship, assuring that “Attendance at debates is not an obligation for candidates for the Presidency of the Republic, but rather a discretionary power”.
The candidate “indicated that his government program has been explained by other means that he considers suitable, exposing it with a clear and easily accessible language through its website, facebook, twitter, instagram, tik tok, youtube and in conversations through live broadcasts.
Know the providence: