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Radicación: 19001-23-33-000-2019-00357-01 Demandante: DAURBEY LEDEZMA ACOSTA “Este documento fue firmado electrónicamente. Usted puede consultar la providencia oficial 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

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Ledezma Acosta v. Ausecha Ordóñez and Armando Guevara Bravo

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether a candidate’s disqualification from running in an election should affect the eligibility of all the candidates on the political party’s candidate list, since as a result of the disqualification the entire list did not meet the gender quota minimum required by law.

Alleged Acts: Plaintiff alleges that the respondent candidate and the party intentionally ignored the gender quotas for candidate lists that are required under Colombian law by not notifying the election management body of the withdrawal of a female candidate.

Procedural history: Plaintiff filed a suit to declare the election of respondents Yury Julián Ausecha Ordóñez and Diego Armando Guevara Bravo invalid and also sought an electoral recount that would exclude the votes cast for the respondents’ party. The Administrative Court of Cauca found in favor of the respondent and rejected the claim. Plaintiff appealed to the Council of State.

Summary: For the 2020 Municipal Councilor Election in Popayán, Colombia, the respondents’ party registered nineteen candidates, six of whom were women (i.e., 31% of the candidates on the list). One candidate, Paola Andrea Méndez Torres, withdrew her name from the party’s list, which decreased its percentage of female candidates to 27%. The party did not notify the National Electoral Council (CNE) about the withdrawal before the election and candidate Méndez Torres did not win a seat. The respondent then filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court of Cauca seeking to cancel the elections of respondents Yury Julián Ausecha Ordóñez and Diego Armando Guevara Bravo because their party did not abide by Colombia’s gender quotas for candidate lists during elections. The Administrative Court found in favor of the respondents. The Seventh Delegate Prosecutor to the Council of State requested that the Council affirm the judgment of the Administrative Court. The Prosecutor argued that because the CNE did not officially and proactively revoke the candidacy of Méndez Torres, the party list still met the gender quota outlined in Law 1475 of 2011, which requires that any election list made up of five or more seats needs to include at least 30% of candidates of each gender.1 Furthermore, the Prosecutor argued that the only way to appeal the CNE’s decision was via an electoral judge, and then only if the candidate in question had been elected. Since Méndez Torres was not elected, the Prosecutor asserted that the electoral judge had no standing to remedy the mistake. Because the CNE did not take the action of revoking the registration of Méndez Torres, the party technically still fulfilled its gender quota. The Council of State agreed with the Prosecutor. Since Méndez Torres was not elected and the CNE had not officially and proactively revoked her candidacy, the election results could not be revoked because of issues relating to the validity of the party’s candidate list.

Conclusion: The Council of State confirmed the ruling of the Administrative Court of Cauca and dismissed the plaintiff’s appeal. The respondents’ elections remained valid.

Legal Issue(s)

Candidate Registration
Disputing Results
Party Registration
Quotas

Applicable Law(s): Article 28 of Law 1475 of 2011; Article 139 of the C.P.A.C.A.

Region: Americas

Country: Colombia

Language of Decision

Spanish

Court: Constitutional Court

Election Type: Municipal

Date of decision: Sep 17, 2020

Geolocation

Latitude: 4.645551671320803

Longitude: -74.0950405334535

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

Ledezma Acosta.pdf
Spanish
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Election Judgments - IFES

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Ledezma Acosta v. Ausecha Ordóñez and Armando Guevara Bravo

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