Colombian President’s Political Reform Drowns in Senate, But His Party Still Hopes For Health and Labor Bills

The last week of work of 2024 for the Colombian Senate marks a new lost battle for the President, Gustavo Petro, to pass his political reform bill.

The government agenda was full of reforms the last year: Pension, Health and Political bills were the most important for Petro. As the Colombian Senate recess period began on December 16; this was the deadline for this bill to be approved by the chamber that had already denied some government bills in the past months. For the government and Petro’s party, Pacto Histórico, the political reform was necessary and key for the political future of the country. However, many analysts and organizations didn’t agree with the president and his bill.

One of those organizations was the MOE (Electoral Observatory Mission), they warned about the content of the political reform. MOE subdirector, Frey Alejandro Muñoz, pointed out a major setback in the possibility of changing parties one time every four years and as late as four months before the election: “This proposal weakens the political parties, because the seat goes from representing the position of the political organization to belonging to the person who was elected. On the other hand, this could generate distrust in the citizenry by finding a lack of consistency in the political system when they see their representatives move from one organization to another.”

The financial aid for political movements was also at risk if the bill was approved. “The bill provides access to operating financing only for political organizations that reach 3% of the vote in Congress, which excludes parties with legal status that emerge from the special Afro and indigenous constituencies.” Another problem related to this issue is the control over the finances of every campaign, as the project did not adopt a clear measure to keep track of the money and its source.

After a long discussion on the last day of ordinary sessions, more than seven hours, the bill didn’t pass.

Juan Fernando Cristo, Minister of the Interior, criticized the decision of the Senate to drown this bill, “They killed political reform by suffocation. The country demanded that Congress debate it. We are not resigned to a nonviable political system, without legitimacy or credibility. We will insist and persist that it is urgent to change the political system to prevent the usual corruption scandals from continuing to be repeated.”

The President of the Senate, Efrain Cepeda, blames the Pe party, Pacto Histórico, for the disaster of the political reform. “On Thursday (December 12) that political reform was scheduled on the agenda, and there were some discussions that, among other things, the same bench of the Pacto Histórico was dedicated to endless interventions to add proposals, and little by little the plenary of the Senate was running out of quorum.”

Cepeda also responds to the critics who try to blame him for the drowning of this initiative. “I cannot answer for the quorum of the plenary, the same governing party delayed the discussion of previous projects.”

In the near future, there’s no schedule for the political reform in 2025, Petro’s party will focus their efforts on Health and Labor reform bills that have already been discussed in the chambers and have more possibilities of being approved in the midterm.

Headline photo: Senate President Efrain Cepeda, centre chair, discuss a bill with congressmen in the chamber. (Source, Congres official website)