The reason why some persons deprived of their liberty will be able to vote on May 29

The Constitutional Court upheld the political right of some prisoners to allow them to vote in the election of President of the Republic

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Jóvenes sufragan durante la elección de los Consejos Municipales y Locales de Juventud el domingo 5 de diciembre de 2021, en Bogotá (Colombia). EFE/ Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda
Jóvenes sufragan durante la elección de los Consejos Municipales y Locales de Juventud el domingo 5 de diciembre de 2021, en Bogotá (Colombia). EFE/ Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda

In the last few hours, the Constitutional Court has endorsed that some citizens deprived of their liberty can vote on the next days of elections to be held in the country. The decision was announced on Monday, April 18 through Judgment No. T-324/94 in which the Court established that, in addition to citizens over 18 years of age eligible to vote, some prisoners will also be able to do so on 29 May.

What is stated in the document is that the right to vote of citizens must be guaranteed by the State, in order for this to lead to a good development of democracy. In the case of persons deprived of their liberty, they cannot exercise this right, but this judgment considers those who remain in detention but are still presumed innocent.

By enjoying the benefit of the presumption of innocence, the person deprived of liberty must be assumed as a citizen with all his rights, including the right to participate in elections with his vote and, in addition, they added that “they deserve preferential treatment because they are in a situation of inferiority”.

As these citizens still do not have a sentence, a fact that causes a person to lose their political rights, the Registrar noted that these people “are part of the electoral roll and can exercise their right to vote”. The Court then stated that in this case the State must guarantee citizens deprived of their liberty the logistics so that they can exercise their right to vote.

According to the most recent census, there are 38 million citizens in Colombia entitled to exercise their right to vote; all of them over the age of 18, including those living abroad and those deprived of liberty who meet the conditions detailed above.

March 29 to April 30: drawing and publication of voting jury lists

May 23 to 29: Voting Abroad Begins

May 28: Dry Law begins at 6:00pm

May 29: Presidential Election Day and Delivery of Precounts

May 30: Dry Law ends at 6:00am

May 31: General Counts Begin

That is, next Sunday, May 29, at the polling stations it was as follows.

Infobae

In the front row are placed: first place is Rodolfo Hernández, from the League of Anti-Corruption Governors, with his vice-presidential formula, Marlene Castillo. In second place is Colombia Justa y Libres with presidential candidate John Milton Rodriguez and his formula Sandra de las Lajas Torres. In third place was the candidate for Team Presidency for Colombia, Federico Gutiérrez, with his vice-presidential formula Rodrigo Lara.

The second row of the card will be headed by the Centro Esperanza coalition with Sergio Fajardo and Luis Gilberto Murillo. Then follows Salvation Nacional with presidential candidate Enrique Gómez Martínez and his formula Carlos Cuartas and finally in that second row is the Historical Pact with his presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro and vice-presidential candidate Francia Márquez.

In the third and final row of the card are the former governor of Antioquia, Luis Pérez and Ceferino Mosquera for Colombia Piensa en Grande; followed by Íngrid Betancourt and José Luis Esparza, by the Green Oxygen party; and last is the blank vote.

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