Why Federico Gutiérrez appears as' Fico 'on the card

Some social media users have been dissatisfied with the way candidate Federico Gutiérrez, winner of the Team for Colombia consultation, is presented on the card of the first presidential round.

The natural name of the presidential candidate is Federico Andrés Gutiérrez Zuluaga. However, on the card it appears as “Fico Gutiérrez”, with his nickname instead of his first name and without his second surname.

Before that, he had also appeared under his nickname on the card of the interparty consultation he won. On the other hand, Alejandro Char Chaljub, the second place in the Team for Colombia, did not compete with his real name either but with the apocope that identifies him among the people and before the media: “Álex Char”.

This would be the third time that Fico has appeared on a voter card. The first was when he ran for mayor in Medellín for the 2016-2019 period, a candidacy he won. On that occasion, their two names and surnames were included, as did those of the rest of the applicants.

Some people consider that allowing the candidate to appear under a nickname would be an advantage for him during the elections. So they wonder if it's legal for a candidate to use a trailer.

The truth is that, since the adoption of the current Electoral Code, all other candidates for the Presidency of the Republic have appeared on the card with at least one name and one surname that appears on their identity card.

Needless to say, when candidates register to participate with the registrar, they must present their identity document and it shows their real and full name, which is written on the form.

In addition, Law 62 of 1988, which imposed the most recent provision on the subject in the current Electoral Code, only says this about election cards for the President of the Republic:

Presidential candidates then register with emblems, names and surnames, and these must be printed on the card. However, there are no specific provisions on the use of trailers in this instance. Maybe it had never occurred to anyone before to use a nickname to win the presidency.

There is a history of candidates for other corporations who appear with trailers on the cards, more history of candidates who wanted to make use of them but were prevented from their local registry office. The newspaper El Tiempo reports Luis Eduardo Garzón (known as Lucho) for the 2003 Mayor's Office of Bogotá and the late Marcos Ataya, who was known as Machete and thus appeared on the card for the mayor's office of Arauca (Arauca).

It should be clarified at this point that it is not true that the candidate's name should appear in full on the card and it has not always happened. In fact, the current card does not appear “Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego”, “Sergio Fajardo Valderrama” or “Luis Emilio Pérez Gutiérrez”.

On the other hand, in candidates who have run for President more than once, there have also been changes of the type first name+first surname or first name + both surnames, which means that there is no clear enough rule in this regard.

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