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Radicado: 44001-23-33-000-2019-00173-01 Demandante: Olimpo Gabriel Núñez De Armas CARLOS ENRIQUE MORENO RUBIO Magistrado “Este documento f ue f irmado electrónicamente. Usted puede consultar la providencia of icial con el número de radicación en http://relatoria.consejodeestado.gov.co:8081” Calle 12 No. 7-65 – Tel: (57-1) 350-6700 – Bogotá D.C. – Colombia www.consejodeestado.gov.co 19

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Núñez de Armas v. Magdaniel Hernández

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether a candidate must resign from his administrative position twelve months from the date of his registration as a candidate or twelve months from the date of the election to be eligible to run as a candidate.

Alleged Acts: After resigning from his post as the director of the Administrative Department of Planning of La Guajira, the defendant registered his candidacy for governor nine months later. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant did not wait the requisite twelve months to register his candidacy after having served in a position in government and sought to nullify the defendant’s election as deputy governor. At the time of the case filing, the defendant had won the second-most votes in the election and been named deputy governor.

Procedural history: After the announcement of the election results, the plaintiff filed the initial suit in the Administrative Court of La Guajira seeking to nullify the election of the defendant as deputy governor of the Department of La Guajira. In the first instance, the Court found in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff then appealed to the Council of State, where the seventh prosecutor requested that the Council of State affirm the judgment.

Summary: On December 22, 2017, the defendant was appointed director of the Administrative Department of Planning of the Department of La Guajira. He resigned from this position on October 24, 2018. On July 27, 2019, he registered as a candidate for the governor’s race in La Guajira, and was elected as deputy governor on November 11, 2019, after receiving the second-most number of votes. The plaintiff argues that the defendant should have resigned twelve months prior to the date of his registration as a gubernatorial candidate, in accordance with Article 299(2) of the Political Constitution, Article 30(3) of Law 617 of 2000, Article 33(3) of Law 617 of 2000, and Article 29, Paragraph 3 of Law 1475 of 2011, rather than twelve months prior to the election. The court dismissed the challenge, and the plaintiff filed an appeal before the Administrative Litigation Section of the Council of State. The seventh prosecutor provided his recommendation to the Court as to the ruling on this case, requesting that the lower court’s judgment be affirmed and arguing that the defendant followed the time limit laid out in the law by resigning at least twelve months before the election took place. Therefore, the defendant should not be disqualified from his seat. The Council of State affirmed the Administrative Court’s decision, holding that under Articles 30(3) and 33(3) of Law 617 of 2000, officials clearly must not exercise administrative authority twelve months prior to the election date rather than the candidate registration date. The Council of State, therefore, held that the defendant candidate was still eligible to run for governor and win the deputy election in La Guajira.

Conclusion: The Council of State affirms the judgment of the Administrative Court of La Guajira, and the defendant remains elected as deputy of La Guajira.

Legal Issue(s)

Candidate Registration

Applicable Law(s): Paragraph 2 of Article 299 of the Political Constitution; Article 30, Number 3 of Law 617 of 2000; Article 33, Number 3 of Law 617 of 2000; Paragraph 3 of Article 29 of Law 1475 of 2011; Article 112 of the Colombian Constitution; Article 25 of Law 1909 of 2018; Judgment SU-625 of 2015; Law 1871 of 2017

Region: Americas

Country: Colombia

Language of Decision

Spanish

Court: Constitutional Court

Election Type: General

Date of decision: Dec 16, 2020

Geolocation

Latitude: 4.609050165563548

Longitude: -74.09406213937953

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

Nunez de Armas.pdf
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Núñez de Armas v. Magdaniel Hernández

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