Attorney General Election: The Senate will keep the date for the selection of Margarita Cabello’s successor
After reports in the press about the alleged postponement of the election of the new Attorney General of the nation, the Board of Directors of the Republican Senate, the corporation entrusted with his selection, confirmed that, as stated, on Wednesday, October 2. The day in which, barring a surprise, former General Secretary of the Legislature Gregorio Eljach will be appointed for the term 2025-2029 after receiving majority support.
After the instruction, there were rumors of a postponement of the trial challenges filed against Senators Alejandro Chacón of the Liberal Party and Juan Samy Merhega of the Conservative Partywho are part of the accreditation commission and try to ensure that they do not interfere with the process. On September 25, members of the committee responsible for checking the candidates’ resumes and confirming that everything is in order presented obstacles.
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However, the Senate plenary did not accept these requests, which allowed these congressmen to participate in the vote, which will take place after the hearing of the three candidates, because, in addition to Elajch Former Bogotá representative and former senator Gerrmán Varón Cotrino and former housing minister Luis Felipe Henao are vying for the position; both at that time close to the Cambio Radical community, which is the opposition party of Gustavo Peter’s government.
As revealed by the magazine Week, although there would be an intention to delay the election of a new head of the public ministryBased on the calls, the Senate Ethics Committee is expected to resolve the cases without further ado between Monday and Tuesday. It should be noted that the reason these funds were presented would be based on the fact that they cannot evaluate the candidates’ resumes, since their parties have already expressed their support for Eljach’s election.
The rejection paper emphasizes that these lawmakers should declare themselves hindered because The municipalities’ support for Eljach occurred even before the election schedule was publishedestablished by the Board of Trustees of the Senate, and consequently there would be an interest in having a former Secretary of Congress selected as the nation’s new Attorney General; the same candidate chosen by President Gustavo Petro.
According to the 2002 Act of 2019, the first clause F of the first article provides that “when a congressman participates in the election of other civil servants by secret ballotExceptions are granted in cases where there is a disqualification related to the relationship with the candidates. This basis, according to the mentioned media, would lead the Ethics Commission to consider that there are insufficient reasons to accept the challenges and that this process should be resolved without complications.
In the opinion of legal experts consulted on the matter, Pablo Bustos, Director of the Colombian Surveillance Network, joinedwho explained on his organization’s social networks the reasons why the steps to choose a new head of this disciplinary control body are in accordance with the law, “and there is no conflict of interest” in relation to the role of congressmen Chacón and Merhego. .
With this panorama, the election of the Attorney General will continue, despite the challenges presented and hints of a possible delay, which has meant a race, although the winner seems to be defined: in favor of a man who was Secretary General of the Senate for 12 yearsand that on a previous occasion, in 2020, he had expressed an interest in entering the public ministry; though he was no more successful on that occasion.