Box 5.7. Citizen challenge in Colombia In Colombia, any citizen has the standing to bring a challenge, or acción popular, before the Council of State (Consejo de Estado) against the actions and decisions of the independent EMB – the National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral). Such challenges can be related to the general vote count in any national election, the declaration of the outcome, and the issuance of credentials. The Council of State is an independent administrative law court with full jurisdiction to annul, rectify, or modify decisions made by the EMB. iv) Specialized electoral courts with functional independence 187. This type of EDR system confers the power of final resolution of electoral disputes on courts that are specialized in electoral matters and enjoy functional independence, either as part of the judicial branch or independent of the three branches of government. 188. The first such EDR system, under the Electoral Court (Corte Electoral) of Uruguay, was provided for in statute in 1924. In 1925 the Electoral Certifications Tribunal (Tribunal Calificador de Elecciones) of Chile was provided for in the Chilean Constitution. Over the course of the 20th century, this type of electoral court was gradually established in the vast majority of Latin American countries. It can be said that such electoral courts are a Latin American contribution to political science and to election law, and have contributed significantly to the processes of democratization and democratic consolidation in the countries of the region, especially since the ‘third wave of democratization’ of the late 1980s and 1990s. 189. The creation of specialized electoral courts was a response by various countries to the need to safeguard the judicial nature of the function of passing judgement on elections, and take it away from the political assemblies which had previously had the responsibility, without exposing the judicial branch (where the specialized court is autonomous) or at least the Supreme Court (where it belongs to the judicial branch) to recurrent questioning and pressure by political party interests. 73 5. A general classification of EDR systems 186. The countries with an EDRS entrusted to an administrative court include Colombia, where it is autonomous since it is not part of the judiciary and is called the Council of State (Consejo de Estado). Another example is Finland, through the Supreme Administrative Court (Korkein Hallinto-Oikeus) on appeal from provincial administrative courts – all of which are part of the judiciary – adjudicating on complaints in respect of the decisions of electoral district commissions on election results.