Daniel Quintero's revocation: CNE ordered to certify accounting statements in 10 days

For more than a month, the process to remove Daniel Quintero from office as mayor has been stalled due to the fact that the National Electoral Council (CNE) has not issued a certification of the accounting statements of the recall initiative. This Thursday, the High Court of Medellín ruled in favor of several guardianships that assured that the entity would be delaying the implementation of the mechanism.

On March 20, at the head of councilman Julio González Villa, several members of the recall committee filed the appeal. “We are surprised that the High Court admitted guardianship, that is, it will process it,” explained the leader of the initiative. There were several guardianships also within the court and he decided to join all the guardianships.”

With the ruling issued this Thursday, the court decided about 40 guardianships through the Quintero recall process. In the document, the entity established a period of 10 days for the CNE to issue certification of the accounting statements of the recall initiative. The concept issued by the Council will determine whether the promoters of the process exceeded the expenditure ceilings or complied with the provisions of the law.

After the CNE issues the certification, it will be determined whether to give the green light to Quintero's recall for the citizens of Medellin to vote at the polls. In the event that the Council does not challenge the judgment as ordered by the court, the case shall be referred to the Constitutional Court.

It should be recalled that, the members of the committee promoted the appeal to put pressure on the CNE concept before the financial accounts, because despite the fact that the National Civil Status Registry endorsed them more than two months ago, the entity has not failed in this regard. In turn, they affirmed that this fact would violate the right to political participation and control of mandate revocations.

With the court's decision, Andrés Rodríguez, leader and spokesman of the recall committee, commented that “the recall of Daniel Quintero is still alive” and said that those who promoted the initiative are calm with the expenses incurred during the process.

On the other hand, the guardianship presented by the committees was also brought against the Registrar's Office, because they considered that the entity would also be delaying the recall process; however, the court dismissed this in the judgment.

Quintero's arguments

For the time being, the mayor of Medellín has not commented on this matter; however, the president has repeatedly repeated that there is evidence that the recall has been financed with public resources, which is illegal, therefore, it would be unsuccessful.

“Today I want to present a very serious piece of evidence, which would show that the recall was financed with public resources. I have documents that prove this,” said the mayor on February 17, and then he showed two documents that would support his complaint.

Quintero noted that the recall accountant, identified as Sofía León Rojas, received 15 million pesos as payment for her fees with resources from the support unit of Councilor González Villa. The documents that the president showed to the media and which, according to him, would prove this irregularity, are the contract for the provision of services of the professional and the payment support.

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