Politics of Colombia

The Politics of Colombia take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Colombia is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is carried out by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Colombia. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Colombia a "flawed democracy" in 2019.[1] [2]

Constitutional reforms

Colombia's present constitution, enacted on July 5, 1991, strengthened the administration of justice with the provision for introduction of an adversarial system which ultimately is to entirely replace the existing Napoleonic Code. Other significant reforms[3] under the new constitution provide for civil divorce, dual nationality, the election of a vice president, and the election of departmental governors. The constitution expanded citizens' basic rights, including that of "tutela," under which an immediate court action can be requested by an individual if he or she feels that their constitutional rights are being violated and if there is no other legal recourse.

The national government has separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Executive branch

See also: President of Colombia

Casa de Nariño, seat of the executive power.

The president is elected for a single four-year term. Between 2005 and 2015, the president could be re-elected for a second term. The 1991 constitution reestablished the position of vice president, who is elected on the same ticket as the president. By law, the vice president will succeed in the event of the president's resignation, illness, or death.

Legislative branch

See also: Congress of Colombia

Congress of Colombia in Bogotá.

Colombia's bicameral Congress consists of a 108-member Senate of Colombia and a 172-member Chamber of Representatives of Colombia. Senators are elected on the basis of a nationwide ballot, while representatives are elected in multi member districts co-located within the 32 national departments. The country's capital is a separate capital district and elects its own representatives. Members may be re-elected indefinitely, and, in contrast to the previous system, there are no alternate congressmen. Congress meets twice a year, and the president has the power to call it into special session when needed.

Political parties and elections

For other political parties, see List of political parties in Colombia. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Colombia.

2018 Presidential election

Candidate		Party/alliance	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Iván Duque Márquez	Grand Alliance for Colombia	7,569,693	39.14	10,373,080	53.98
	Gustavo Petro	List of Decency	4,851,254	25.09	8,034,189	41.81
	Sergio Fajardo	Colombia Coalition	4,589,696	23.73
	Germán Vargas Lleras	Mejor Vargas Lleras	1,407,840	7.28
	Humberto De la Calle	PLC–ASI	399,180	2.06
	Jorge Antonio Trujillo	We Are All Colombia	75,614	0.39
	Promotores Voto En Blanco	Party of Ethnic Reclamation "PRE"	60,312	0.31
	Viviane Morales Hoyos	Somos Región Colombia	41,458	0.21
Blank votes			341,087	1.76	808,104	4.21
Invalid votes			300,080	–	295,499	–
Total			19,336,134	100	19,510,684	100
Registered voters/turnout			36,227,267	53.37	36,783,940	53.04
Source: El Tiempo Government

2018 Parliamentary election

House of Representatives

Party	Votes	%	Seats
Colombian Liberal Party	2,471,596	13.82%	35
Democratic Center	2,388,405	13.36%	32
Radical Change	2,140,630	11.97%	30
Social Party of National Unity	1,840,481	10.29%	25
Colombian Conservative Party	1,819,867	10.18%	21
Green Alliance	884,146	4.94%	9
Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation	585,638	3.27%	1
Alternative Democratic Pole	444,912	2.49%	2
Citizen Option	310,724	1.74%	2
List of Decency Coalition (ASI–UP–MAIS)	262,282	1.47%	2
Partido Somos	160,618	0.90%	0
Colombia Coalition	121,338	0.68%	0
Colombia Justa Libres	114,174	0.64%	1
Indigenous Social Alliance Movement	112,340	0.63%	0
Alternative Santandereana Coalition	71,953	0.40%	1
Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement	44,034	0.25%	1
Colombia Justa Libres	58,654	0.33%	0
List of Decency Coalition (ASI–UP–MAIS)	49,426	0.28%	0
Patriotic Union	42,910	0.28%	0
Citizen Force for Decency	35,140	0.20%	0
Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (FARC)	32,636	0.18%	0
AV–PDA	21,849	0.12%	0
Coalition for the North	17,935	0.10%	0
Todos Somos Colombia	16,447	0.09%	0
Indigenous Authorities of Colombia	11,244	0.06%	0
Arauca for All	5,028	0.03%	0
Movement for Regional Integration	3,033	0.02%	0
Afro-Colombian Seats
C.C. Ancenstral de Comunidades Negras Playa Renaciente	32,439	0.18%	1
Consejo Comunitario La Mamuncia	23,627	0.13%	1
C.C. de la Comunidad Negra de la Plata Bahía Málaga	17,006	0.10%	0
Consejo Comunitario del Rio Yurumangui	13,355	0.07%	0
Consejo Comunitario Mayor de Certegui	11,743	0.07%	0
C.C. De Comun. Negras Palenque Vda. Las Trescientas y Mun. Galapa	11,655	0.07%	0
Fundación Laborar por Colombia Fundalabor	8,035	0.04%	0
Fundación Esperanza Afro-Esafro	7,933	0.04%	0
Consejo Comunitario de Alejandro Duran Diaz	7,828	0.04%	0
Todos Somos Colombia	7,287	0.04%	0
Corporación Poder Ciudadano	6,597	0.04%	0
Consejo Comunitario Renacer Negro	6,346	0.04%	0
Si Se Puede	5,904	0.03%	0
Consejo Comunitario Bocas del Atrato y Leoncito	3,919	0.02%	0
Consejo Comunitario Ma Kankamana de San Basilio de Palenque	3,795	0.02%	0
C.C. de la Comunidad Negra de la Calle Larga Rio Dagua	3,527	0.02%	0
C.C. de los Corregimientos de San Antonio y El Castillo	3,292	0.02%	0
Consejo Comunitario Los Andes	3,220	0.02%	0
Consejo Comunitario Veredas Unidas Un Bien Común	3,194	0.02%	0
ACN-EAT	2,991	0.02%	0
C.C. De La Comun. Negra De Tierra Baja Mi Territorio Ancestral	2,980	0.02%	0
Consejo Comunitario Imbilpi del Carmen	2,451	0.01%	0
Consejo Comunitario de la Comunidad Negra de Limones	2,403	0.01%	0
AFROSANPEDRO	2,329	0.01%	0
FUNAFROPECOR	2,193	0.01%	0
Consejo Comunitario Tablon Salado	2,134	0.01%	0
AFROCODES	1,988	0.01%	0
Asociación Colombia Negra Huellas de Africania en Paz	1,915	0.01%	0
Kusuto Magende Cokumalu de Luruaco	1,905	0.01%	0
Consejo Comunitario de las Baras	1,873	0.01%	0
Fundación Amor y Paz	1,691	0.01%	0
Consejo Comunitario de Comunidades Negras Obatala	1,634	0.01%	0
CENAFROZ	1,628	0.01%	0
Cuenca del Rio Iscuande	1,557	0.01%	0
Consejo Comunitario de Comunidades Negras Santo Domingo	1,554	0.01%	0
Org. Social de Comunidades Negras "Nelson Mandela"	1,533	0.01%	0
FUNETCOL	1,509	0.01%	0
C.C. General del Río Baudó y Sus Afluentes "Acaba"	1,340	0.01%	0
Los Palenkes	1,314	0.01%	0
FUNDEVIA	1,075	0.01%	0
Fundación Renacer Para Todos	1,010	0.01%	0
Asoc. de Afr. Sin Animo de Lucro de S. Cristóbal Sur Asafroscol 4	1,006	0.01%	0
Indigenous Seats
Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement	99,645	0.56%	1
Indigenous Authorities of Colombia	45,969	0.26%	0
UAIZSACOR	4,437	0.02%	0
ANICOL	4,308	0.02%	0
Taita Zipa Foundation	2,442	0.01%	0
Casiyouren Traditional Authority	1,909	0.01%	0
Invalid/blank votes	3,433,453	–	–
Total	17,882,318	100	166
Registered voters/turnout	36,493,318		–
Source: RNEC (99.03% of polling stations reporting)

Senate

Party	Votes	%	Seats
National Seats
Democratic Center	2,513,320	17.36	19
Radical Change	2,155,487	14.89	16
Colombian Conservative Party	1,927,320	13.32	15
Colombian Liberal Party	1,901,933	13.14	14
Social Party of National Unity	1,853,054	12.80	14
Green Alliance	1,317,429	9.10	10
Alternative Democratic Pole	736,367	5.09	5
List of Decency Coalition (ASI–UP–MAIS)	523,286	3.62	4
Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation	501,489	3.46	3
Colombia Justa Libres	431,418	2.98	0
Citizen Option	354,042	2.45	0
Partido Somos	94,349	0.65	0
Todos Somos Colombia	63,443	0.44	0
Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (FARC)	52,532	0.36	0
Union for Fortaleza	34,121	0.24	0
Si Se Puede	14,860	0.10	0
Indigenous Seats
Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement	72,591	45.68	1
Indigenous Authorities of Colombia	34,957	22.00	1
Indigenous Social Alliance Movement	23,742	14.94	0
Political Sovereignty Movement	15,692	9.87	0
Casiyouren Traditional Authority	5,370	3.38	0
Ethnic Renovation of Colombia	4,382	2.76	0
Indigenous Environmental Movement	2,181	1.37	0
Invalid/blank votes	3,184,820	–	–
Total	17,818,185	100	102
Registered voters/turnout	36,493,318	48.82	–
Source: Colombia.com (98.97% of polling stations reporting)

Judicial branch

Main article: Judiciary of Colombia

Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia.

The civilian judiciary is a separate and independent branch of government. Guidelines and the general structure for Colombia's administration of justice are set out in Law 270 of March 7, 1996. Colombia's legal system has recently begun to incorporate some elements of an oral, accusatory system. The judicial branch's general structure is composed of four distinct jurisdictions (ordinary, administrative, constitutional, and special). Colombia's highest judicial organs are the Supreme Court, the Council of State, the Constitutional Court, and the Superior Judicial Council. Although all the high courts technically oversee separate jurisdictions, the Constitutional Court has a broad spectrum of judicial oversight which often allows it to rule on issues overseen by different jurisdictions and even weigh in directly in the rulings of other high courts.[4]

International organization participation

Global

United Nations

• FAO
• IAEA
• ICAO
• ITUC
• IFAD
• ILO
• IMF
• IMO
• IOM
• ITU
• UNASUR
• UNCTAD
• UNESCO
• UNHCR
• UNIDO
• UPU
• WHO
• WIPO
• WMO
• WToO

World Bank

• IDA
• IBRD
• IFC
• MIGA

Other

• G-24
• G-77
• ICC
• ICCt
• ICRM
• IFRCS
• IHO
• Interpol
• IOC
• ISO
• NAM
• OPCW
• PCA
• WCO
• WFTU
• WTO

Regional

• BCIE
• CAN
• CDB
• G-3
• IADB
• LAES
• LAIA
• Mercosur (associate)
• OAS
• OPANAL
• RG

References

1. The Economist Intelligence Unit (8 January 2019). "Democracy Index 2019". Economist Intelligence Unit. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
2. wola (2020-05-04). "Illegal Surveillance by Colombia's Military is Unacceptable". WOLA. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
3. Bruce M. Wilson, "Institutional Reform and Rights Revolutions in Latin America: The Cases of Costa Rica and Colombia", Journal of Politics in Latin America, ISSN 1868-4890
4. Botero Marino, Botero Marino; Fernando Jaramillo. "El Conflicto de las Cortes Colombianas en Torno a la Tutela Contra Sentencias" (PDF). Retrieved 5 October 2015.

External links

• House of Representatives of Colombia
• Senate of Colombia
• Presidency of Colombia
• Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia