Electoral Council resumes administrative investigation against Petro’s presidential campaign

The CNE has decided to open a preliminary investigation into alleged irregularities in its campaign financing / Photo: France 24

The National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Friday that it will resume the administrative investigation it is conducting against the presidential campaign of the current Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, for alleged irregular financing of the campaign.

The electoral body made the statement after the Council of State, Colombia’s highest administrative litigation court, declared the CNE competent to continue with the investigation into “alleged irregularities in the financing and presentation of income and expenditure reports” of Petro’s campaign.

“The Council of State declared the competence of the National Electoral Council to impose the corresponding administrative sanctions, if applicable,” the CNE said in a statement.

Last May, the electoral body said it would study a report by two judges recommending charges be brought against the president, a decision the president described as the beginning of “a coup d’état.”

The report by judges Álvaro Hernán Prada, former congressman of the right-wing Centro Democrático party, and Benjamín Ortiz, former general secretary of the CNE, also calls for charges to be brought against Ricardo Roa, president of the state oil company Ecopetrol and who was Petro’s campaign manager in 2022.

The case against Petro’s presidential campaign began in February 2023 when the CNE decided to open a preliminary investigation into alleged irregularities in its financing based on an “anonymous complaint.”

The agency then explained that the complaint was filed for “alleged irregularities in the financing and reporting of income and expenditure of the first and second round presidential election campaign” of the Historic Pact, the left-wing coalition that brought Petro to the Presidency in 2022.

Bogota / EFE