Reactions to the Court's decision to remove the CNE's ability to investigate President Gustavo Petro

The Constitutional Court 's decision to declare the National Electoral Council (CNE) incompetent to investigate President Gustavo Petro in relation to alleged irregularities in his presidential campaign elections sparked a wave of reactions from various political sectors.

By a narrow 5-4 vote, the Plenary Chamber overturned the ruling by the Council of State's Consultation Chamber, which had given the CNE the green light to file charges against Petro and four members of his campaign team.

In sectors close to the government, the ruling was hailed as a legal victory for President Petro, who had filed a writ of protection alleging a violation of due process and his presidential immunity.

"The Constitutional Court has just recognized presidential immunity by determining that the only body that can judge President Petro is the Accusations Commission," said Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, once the decision was announced in X.

Likewise, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jaime Raúl Salamanca, described the announcement as "a decision that safeguards our institutions." "I said it a year ago: 🇨🇴 The Court has sent a clear message: only the Accusation Commission can investigate President Petro, as mandated by our Constitution," he added.

David Racero, a representative in the House of Representatives for the Historic Pact, also spoke out on social media. “It was obvious. The two CNE judges who sought to judge President Petro must be prosecuted for malfeasance,” he wrote.

The administrative investigation, which is also in its final stages at the National Electoral Council, will continue against Ricardo Roa—former campaign manager and current president of Ecopetrol— treasurer Lucy Aidee Mogollón Alfonso, and auditors María Lucy Soto Caro and Juan Carlos Lemus Gómez.

The Court also ordered that, within five business days of notification of the ruling, the CNE send a copy of the proceedings brought regarding the alleged irregularities to the House of Representatives so that the Accusations Commission, the President's natural judge, "may exercise its corresponding powers."

Currently, the liberal Leonardo Gallego Arroyave, close to the government, and Katherine Miranda, of the Green Alliance and a critic of the Casa de Nariño, are the president and vice president, respectively, of the commission.

It is also made up of Jorge Eliécer Tamayo (La 'U'), Wilmer Ramiro Carrillo Mendoza (La 'U'), Leonardo de Jesús Gallego (Liberal), Karyme Adrana Cotes Martínez (Liberal), María Eugenia Lopera (Liberal), Juan Carlos Wills (Conservative), Wadith Alberto Manzur (Conservative), Daniel Restrepo (Conservative) Carlos Alberto Cuenca (Radical Change), Olga Lucia Velásquez (Green), Hernán Darío Cadavid (Democratic Center), Oscar Leonardo Villamizar (Democratic Center), Alirio Uribe Muñoz (Historic Pact), Gloria Elena Arizabaleta (Historic Pact), Alejandro Ocampo (Historic Pact), Jorge Rodrigo Tovar (Citrep) and William Aljure (Citrep).

There were also some reactions from the opposition. Among them was that of Senator María Fernanda Cabal of the Democratic Center. "The CNE must investigate and sanction Ricardo Roa and company from Petro's 2022 campaign for violating campaign limits by more than $5.3 billion pesos. The House of Representatives Accusations Commission cannot further delay the trial under Article 109 of the Criminal Code for violating electoral limits, based on the CNE's investigation ," she commented.

For his part, Representative Julio César Triana, of Cambio Radical, stated: " In the past, Gustavo Petro was critical of the Accusations Commission. He even considered it a 'monument to impunity.' Today, while he's being investigated, Petro is doing everything possible to ensure that the same commission, and not the National Electoral Council, judges him. Mind you, when he was a candidate, he said that the commission was useless, that it was complicit in power, and that it should disappear. It's double talk, it's weird. Petro in his purest form," he maintained.

CAMILO A. CASTILLOPolitical EditorX: (@camiloandres894)