Registrar Alexander Vega: process to reverse his election has been in the Council of State for two years

Because of the inconsistencies in information between the preliminary count in the legislative elections of March 13 and the official scrutiny that followed, several sectors have rushed to request the resignation of the Registrar General, Alexander Vega Rocha.

For example, the presidential candidate of the Oxygen Green party, Ingrid Betancourt, had suggested this in the debate of the RCN channel and its allied media: “Obviously it can happen that the recount shows prominent flaws that are due to the organization of the Registrar and I would have to resign; but what are the guarantees of a change of registrar halfway through the elections? ”.

In the same debate, Sergio Fajardo, the candidate of the Centro Esperanza Coalition, had spoken about it: “The Registrar has to resign because he is not the arbitrator who gives us the guarantee to be able to participate transparently in the elections. The courts must choose a person who gives us guarantees.”

Enrique Gomez, of the National Salvation Movement, said he agreed with a recount and an eventual resignation: “Someone has to resign here... Welcome the recount, but the Registrar resigns immediately. Democracy is at risk”

Former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana announced through his Twitter account that he filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office against the registrar.

However, complaints against Alexander Vega have been raised since the time of his election in 2019. In fact, there are three applications accepted and under consideration by Judge Luis Alberto Álvarez Parra, member of the Fifth Committee of the Council of State, which seek to annul the election of the registrar due to alleged irregularities in the process.

There are several arguments of the lawsuits. One of them is that the score Vega obtained in the qualifying knowledge test: 453,423 points. In theory, only the first ten scores would be called for interviews, as long as they had scored 500 points or more.

Although the score achieved by the current registrar did not reach that threshold, Vega was summoned to the interview. There he scored 285 points out of 300 possible, a qualification enough to take the position.

As if that were not enough, the lawsuits say that Vega “does not meet the constitutional and legal qualities and requirements to have been elected as such.” To reach that position, the registrar had to demonstrate 15 years of experience in the judicial branch, the public prosecutor's office, law or the university chair on legal issues.

Failure to comply with this requirement would constitute a violation of paragraph four of article 232 of the Political Constitution of Colombia.

Finally, the demands also indicate that the place of the interviews was changed at the last minute: they were not held at the Palace of Justice, as is customary.

The magistrates of the high courts and the Attorney General's Office have spoken publicly on the subject, but none of the corporations has any decision been taken. However, the matter will most likely be closed.

In the Attorney General's Office, a female official declared herself unable to handle the issue and has not moved since then. The courts have assured that the minimum cut indicated by the plaintiffs never existed and that the change of venue was informed to the other nine candidates, in addition to having been motivated by the protests of the last quarter of 2019.

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