To explain what the election of registrar Alexander Vega was like, the Council of State summoned representatives of the high courts

A complicated picture is assumed by National Registrar Alexander Vega, who after the debate on political control cited by multiple irregularities in the electoral process of the legislative elections held on March 13, is now facing a two-year judicial process that comes back into force.

This is the process that Judge Luis Alberto Álvarez has, in which they point out alleged irregularities when conducting the interview and election process of the National Registrar in 2019, where Alexander Vega was elected.

One of the first anomalies was that they are noted, was the place where the interview took place, since candidates usually carry out this process in the Palace of Justice, but on that occasion it was held at the Police Officers Centre (CESPO). Some representatives of the courts that served as Magistrates at that time indicated that the change was made due to protests at that time and allegedly because of the safety and comfort of the candidates, they were notified of the new site for the selection process.

To clarify this

To clarify this situation, former Constitutional Court judge Gloria Ortiz, former judge Álvaro García and former judge Lucy Jeaneth Bermudez were summoned. Likewise, the statement of Juan Enrique Bedoya, who was ad hoc secretary of the meeting, was requested.

Among the applications for the statement, there are the links to the interviews where the different candidates were analyzed, their questions and answers, as well as the evaluation of those who chose Vega as Registrar.

The lawsuits against the election of Vega

There are several arguments in the lawsuits imposed in 2019 against the election of the registrar. One of them is the score that 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.

Despite this, Vega put on his resume that he worked in two different places at the same time: he was deputy chief, consulting lawyer and litigator at the Martínez & Vega Abogados Business Law Group, while he was executive director of Transparency Electoral.

The plaintiffs say that these simultaneous work experiences cannot add up to double seniority within the public tender, so that Vega would have a total of nine years, ten months and four days of experience prior to his election as a registrar. 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 in the Palace of Justice, as is customary, but at Cespo. Moreover, it was not done publicly, but behind closed doors.

The argument that was made on October 10, 2019 to change the venue and close the doors of the public was a series of demonstrations that caused noise and disturbances of public order in the vicinity of the Palace of Justice. The counselor shall determine the appropriateness of this decision.

Until this Wednesday, when the issue was reactivated, the investigation had been abandoned because an official of the Attorney General's Office had declared herself unable to handle the issue; three years have passed since that.

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