The Superior Court of Bogotá ordered Colombian presidential candidates Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández to schedule at least one debate no later than Thursday, June 16. Hernández had refused to submit to a face-to-face meeting with Petro before the June 19 vote, but that decision did not catch on with a group of citizens who, through a tutelage action, managed to get the Court to order it to take place.
Four days before the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia, a ruling by the Superior Court of Bogotá orders the candidates that “within 48 hours following notification of this order, request and schedule a presidential debate ( …) in accordance with the principles of equality and impartiality that govern electoral activity”.
According to the Court, which agrees with the plaintiffs, “the national significance implied by the election of the President of the Republic in our State, the right to access the media of parties, social movements, politicians and significant groups of citizens, implies an implicit duty towards the citizen to allow him to meet his candidates”.
This measure is given by a tutelage action presented by a group of people under the arguments of the right of citizens to “receive truthful and impartial information and human dignity”, and dissatisfied with not seeing the candidates in a face to face to know their proposals and vision of the country. Now, Rodolfo Hernández and Gustavo Petro must jointly schedule a debate this Thursday, June 16.
The court explained that, although the government programs have been available on the candidates’ web pages, “this communication mechanism by itself is not considered suitable or sufficient, because it does not allow a large number of voters who do not they have the possibility of accessing the internet, or they cannot and do not understand the postulates that are presented in writing”.
In the protection filed, it was requested that “the candidates be required to appear, organize and plan the debate or debates, in a national television or radio channel, to fulfill the function of information about their government program”, and that ” The National Electoral Council urges the presidential candidates to present themselves in the debates”. The guardianship also requests “at least two debates prior to the elections on June 19, 2022 during non-working hours.”
The applicants for the holding of the debate
According to Mauricio Urquijo, one of the lawyers who presented the guardianship, “the ruling is for immediate execution and the resources do not have the possibility of suspending the order,” he said on his social networks.
🚨🚨🚨 EXCELLENT NEWS!
Superior Court of Bogotá has just granted us the guardianship that @CataOpinando and other actors interposed for the presidential debate to take place.
Democracy wins! pic.twitter.com/Q8OhmxwmGs
– Mauricio Urquijo (@LuisUrquijo) June 15, 2022
On Urquijo’s YouTube channel, Catalina Sánchez Daniels, one of the plaintiffs, explained that they were not the only ones who presented a guardianship, “about four or five guardianship actions were integrated with the same goal: that we be recognized as we have the right to see and have a presidential debate before the second round”, argues Sánchez Daniels.
According to the plaintiff, “the court concludes that the two candidates do have the obligation to go and attend a national debate using the entire infrastructure of our national media system, a communications network that we all finance.”
Sánchez explains in the video that the rulings on guardianship in the first instance are already mandatory. “We do not have to wait for what will happen in the second instance”, this means that “this ruling can be challenged by any of the two candidates who do not agree”.
And, therefore, “despite this challenge, the candidates are obliged to comply with the ruling in the first instance. Whoever fails to comply with it, can be sanctioned from pecuniary to arrest, without prejudice to criminal responsibility, that is, they can open a criminal proceeding for fraud by judicial resolution, “explained Daniels.
Once the ruling is known, the candidate Gustavo Petro indicated on his Twitter account that he is ready for the debate. But Rodolfo Hernández has not yet spoken.
The court has ordered the presidential debate between candidates. It is the right of the people. I’m ready for it.
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 15, 2022
After the first round of voting on May 29, Rodolfo Hernández, the populist independent candidate of the Anti-Corruption Governors League, announced that he would not participate in debates with Petro due, according to him, to security reasons and threats against his life.
Later, on June 2, he added that he did not participate in debates because he considered them “polarizing and hateful dynamics.” Reason why she only gives interviews.
I will not attend debates because I will not be a participant in these polarizing and hateful dynamics. I will present my ideas and proposals in interviews and on my social networks, speaking with Colombians. It’s time to stop dividing and work on the union that Colombia needs 🇨🇴🫂 pic.twitter.com/pVQvp7c3zA
— Ing Rodolfo Hernandez 🇨🇴! (@ingrodolfohdez) June 2, 2022
In an interview with the station ‘W Radio’ on June 10, Hernández’s political strategist, the Argentine Ángel Becassino had explained one of the reasons why they did not attend the debates. “In some of the versions of the debate that they were proposing to us, perhaps a debate where it would seem that we entered into a discussion of argument and counter-argument, they are not the best scenario to allow the electorate to clearly observe what Rodolfo is saying and what Gustavo is saying. “, said.
Hernández also objected during the guardianship process
Under the argument that attendance at the debates is not an obligation for the candidates, Rodolfo Hernández ruled in the processing of this action opposing the guardianship. And he added that his government program has explained it by other means that he considers suitable, exposing it in clear language that is easily accessible through his social networks.
The court ruling also notes that Petro refused to participate in some debates during the first round and Hernández in the second. And he stressed that both have refused these meetings on some occasion throughout the electoral campaign.
I suspend my presence in electoral debates until the transparency of the vote is guaranteed.
We will act with maximum prudence and we ask the international oversight agencies to act promptly.
At this time there is no transparent chain of custody over the votes already counted.
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 21, 2022
Media associations ask candidates to respect the role of the press
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) joined this Wednesday other organizations such as the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), the Information Media Association (AMI), Voces del Sur, and IFEX-ALC (a regional alliance of IFEX members in Latin America and the Caribbean) to express concern about the siege against the Colombian press during the presidential campaign.
Through a declaration, they ask the candidates to stop your anti-journalism “rhetoric”, respect the role of the press and show more “tolerance” towards criticism.
The statement notes that both the Petro and Hernandez campaigns “have had repeated expressions that hinder press scrutiny of the candidates, their programs, their allies, and their funders.”
The organizations’ statement reads that “this creates an environment that tries to dissuade the exercise of press freedom, reduces the diversity of information and limits the content that citizens can access. It also raises deep concerns about what the climate will be for journalistic work under the government that is elected on June 19,” they stress.
Colombia will hold the second round of the presidential elections on Sunday, June 19, in the midst of a technical tie in most voting intention polls, which envisions a neck-to-neck dispute at the polls.
With EFE, local media and IFEX
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