MOE reported that 4 out of 8 presidential candidates have not provided data on campaign finance

The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) warned that half of the presidential campaigns have reported revenues and expenditures during the electoral period to define the future tenant of the Nariño Palace.

This alert was issued by the management of the EOM, Alejandra Barrios, during the Electoral Guarantees Commission convened by the national government.

Barrios warned that, less than a month before the first round, 4 out of 8 of the presidential candidates have not reported information on the financing of their campaigns.

“Out of eight election campaigns, only four have submitted funding reports for political campaigns. We have four organizations, campaigns to the Presidency of the Republic, with reports in 0. There is no sympathy for what the media are suggesting to us in terms of publicity, with what is in the Accounts Claras reports,” Barrios told the Committee.

The EOM's claims are supported by the application of the National Electoral Council, Clear Accounts, which states that the four campaigns without reporting campaign revenue or expenses are those of Gustavo Petro (Historical Pact), Ingrid Betancourt (Oxygen Green Party), John Milton Rodríguez (Colombia Justa y Libres Party) and Luis Pérez (Colombia Thinks Big Movement).

On the contrary, the campaigns of Sergio Fajardo and Rodolfo Hernández have recorded income and expenditure as required by the CNE.

The Coalition for Hope candidate reported revenues of $760 billion and expenditures of $409 billion; on the other hand, Hernandez reported that he had revenues of more than $120 billion, and $26 billion in expenses.

Although the income information has been presented by the campaigns of Federico Gutiérrez and Enrique Gómez. While the Colombia Team candidate records $55 billion in Accounts Claras, the Conservative candidate for National Salvation reported $5 billion.

Given the lack of information, it was the EOM that requested the CNE to require all electoral campaigns to comply with the requirements arising from Resolution 8586 of 2021.

In this regard, it requested that investigations be initiated ex officio to determine the possible violation of the rules on campaign finance and advertising, as well as to coordinate with local authorities the removal and/or dismantling of electoral advertising that violates the regulations established for this purpose. subject.

The EOM has played a crucial role in the follow-up to the past congressional elections, which took place on March 13, 2022.

Faced with irregularities in the numbers of the ballots, its director, Alejandra Barrios, pointed out that the responsibility for these inconsistencies goes beyond the voting juries.

“Indeed, there is a difference in the Senate of the Republic between the transmission of the ballot about one million votes; 500,000 votes for the House of Representatives,” Barrios said.

As observed by the EOM in other electoral processes, the difference is usually 0.5% and even less. On this occasion, the disparity between what was broadcast on the day of the legislative elections and the counting is 7 per cent.

For this reason, the EOM indicated that according to the information provided by the Registrar's Office, there were 5,000 tables where most of the inconsistencies were found in the past elections. “It should be so much for the House and Senate to be concentrated almost 80% of the errors in filling the E-14, that is, that is where we should have the million votes concentrated,” Barrios said.

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