A total of 3,231 candidates will compete for seats in Colombia’s congress in the legislative elections scheduled for March 8, according to the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil (RNEC), the authority responsible for organizing the country’s electoral processes. In total, 102 senators and 182 members of the House of Representatives will be elected.

According to the electoral authority, 1,124 candidates registered for the Senate and 2,107 for the House of Representatives, the two chambers that make up Colombia’s congress.

As the political analysis website Razón Pública explains, Colombia’s electoral system is based on proportional representation, which seeks to reflect the diversity of political opinions within society in the composition of Congress. For the Senate, or upper chamber, voters may cast their ballots for candidates anywhere in the country, as it operates under a national constituency. In contrast, the House of Representatives, or lower chamber, is elected through territorial constituencies by departments, including Bogotá as the Capital District.

According to the RNEC, 41,287,084 citizens are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections, a key figure because it influences how seats are allocated.

Senate elections

In this election, 102 senators will be chosen by popular vote. According to the Senate’s official website, 100 will be elected through a nationwide constituency and the remaining two seats are reserved for indigenous communities, a special constituency established by the 1991 Constitution to guarantee political representation for these groups.

Voters must choose between receiving the national ballot or the Indigenous constituency ballot, but they cannot vote in both.

House of Representatives elections

For the House of Representatives, 182 members will be elected, distributed as follows:

• Territorial constituencies: 161 seats allocated to departments and the Capital District of Bogotá.
• Special Transitional Peace Constituencies: 16 seats reserved for victims of the armed conflict, created by the Acto Legislativo 02 of 2021.
• Afro-descendant communities: 2 seats.
• Indigenous communities: 1 seat.
• Community of San Andrés (Raizal): 1 seat.
• Colombians living abroad: 1 seat.

Unlike the Senate, each department receives a specific number of seats based on its population, creating regional electoral dynamics in which local political leadership often plays a key role. In practice, more populous departments hold greater representation than smaller ones.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives receive one additional seat after the presidential election, allocated to the candidate who obtains the second-highest number of votes.

How seats are allocated

Colombia’s electoral system is regulated by the Acto Legislativo 001 of 2003 and the Electoral Law, and operates under principles of proportional representation.

First, the valid votes obtained by each party list are counted. Only those lists that surpass a 3% threshold of total valid votes are eligible to participate in the distribution of seats. In the 2022 legislative elections, this threshold exceeded 509,000 votes.

According to projections by the Misión de Observación Electoral (MOE), the threshold for the Senate in the upcoming elections could reach around 600,000 votes.

This threshold is crucial because if, for example, a candidate obtains 450,000 votes but their party fails to pass the threshold, neither the candidate nor the party will secure a seat in Congress.

Among the lists that surpass the threshold, seats are distributed using the D’Hondt method, known in Colombia as the cifra repartidora, which allocates seats proportionally according to the number of votes obtained. In 2022, the seat-allocation quotient was 144,013 votes.

For the House of Representatives, the process is more complex because the threshold and D’Hondt method are applied separately within each department, producing different results across regions.

With closed lists, voters select only the political party or list as a whole, without choosing an individual candidate.

Open and closed lists

Under the Acto Legislativo 1 of 2003, political parties may register open lists or closed lists. With open lists, voters select a specific candidate within a party’s list. The vote counts both for the political party and for the individual candidate. Seats obtained by the party are then assigned to the candidates who received the highest number of votes, regardless of their initial position on the list.

With closed lists, voters select only the political party or list as a whole, without choosing an individual candidate. Seats are then allocated according to the order predetermined and registered at the start of the campaign by the party.

In the upcoming elections, two of Colombia’s most prominent political forces will present closed lists: the Pacto Histórico, the coalition led by current President Gustavo Petro, and the Centro Democrático, the right-wing party founded by former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

Photo courtesy of the National Civil Registry of Colombia,

So far, the recount underway has adjusted the results by 390,000 votes in favor of the opposition.

Opposition parties have called for the resignation of elections chief Alexander Vega (above), who so far has refused to step down, saying the elections were fair.  Meanwhile, independent electoral observers, under the aegis of the internationally backed Misión de Observación Electoral (MOE) says that they received a litany of complaints, and their 723 observers noted many irregularities and legal violations, receiving 249 incident reports from metropolitan Bogotá alone:

• 10 irregularities in the Count of Votes / Scrutiny in Bogotá
• 48 irregularities in Voting in Bogotá and 2 in Soacha
• 7 irregularities by public functionaries in Bogotá
• 12 irregularities in the Registration of Identification Cards in Bogotá
• 49 irregularities in media advertising and communication in Bogotá and 3 in Soacha
• 109 irregularities by the Electoral Authorities in Bogotá and 3 in Soacha
• 2 problems with electoral material and logistics in Bogotá
• 4 problems with the electoral authorities in Bogotá

In addition, observers noted the following irregularities:

• In the installation of the voting stations, 25.9% of the tables did not have the required six voting jurors.
• In 21.6% of the polling stations observed, there were voting jurors with their own campaign badges.
• In 67.1% of the polling stations observed there were no instructions or announcements regarding the guarantees for voting for trans people.
• 38.8% of the polling stations observed did not have electoral material that was easy to read and accessible to people with disabilities.
• At the close of election day, there were electoral witnesses in only 77.6% of the positions observed.
• In 41.8% of the polling stations observed there was not an equitable balance of poll workers, and 35.2% of the polling stations observed received complaints against the counting of votes carried out by the voting juries.
• In 24.8% of the polling stations reported, the E-14 forms (with the total number of votes for each polling station) had blackouts or amendments.

The following irregularities were also causes for concern:

1. Power Failures at Polling Stations at the Time of Vote Counting
   During the vote counting process, power failures have been reported in at least five voting stations: Gran Plaza Soacha, IE Sol Naciente, IE General Santander del municipality of Soacha, at the IED Cundinamarca post in the neighborhood of Ciudad Bolívar and at the Zona Franca post in the suburb of Fontibón.
2. Changes in Location of Polling Stations
   During the course of election day the MOE received two reports regarding the
   relocation of polling stations. On the one hand, at the Banderas Military Gymnasium
   FAC post (Kennedy), and the Almirante Padilla post in the municipality of Soacha, which is remarkable, as the polling station remained closed throughout the day and it was not possible to clarify where it was transferred.
3. Vote Buying
   During the day, MOE received 32 reports indicating an alleged purchase of votes.
   This situation occurred in Bosa, Engativá (Syndey Australia Consulate), La Candelaria (Autonomous University), Tunjuelito (Tunal B Colegio José María Córdoba), Puente Aranda, Chapinero, Ciudad Bolívar (Colegio la Joya, District U Technological Headquarters, IED Cundinamarca ), Usme (Tomás Carrasquilla School), Suba (Gerardo Paredes School, La Gaitan School), Fontibón (Jumbo Hayuelos), Kennedy (San Ignacio Skating Track, Floresta Azul School), San Cristóbal, Rafael Uribe Uribe, Teusaquillo (Corpus Cristhi) and in Soacha (Maypore).
4. Counting and Registration of Votes
   In five polling stations in the towns of Puente Aranda (Jorge Gaitán Cortés), Engativá (Gran Granada), Usaquén (Colegio Toberín, Saludcoop Norte) and Kennedy (Centro Comercial Tintal) observers reported that the jurors voting did not have the vote counting forms to facilitate their work at the time of counting votes.
   Regarding the completion of the E-14 forms, with the total number of votes registered at the polling stations, errors were found in their completion at the
   Gran Yomasa polling station (suburb of Usme). To this is added the information
   given by members of the Registrar’s Office at the Centennial post of the Rafael Uribe locality Uribe, where jurors were instructed to leave the unused spaces on the E-14 form
   blank. On the other hand, at Kennedy’s San Lucas post, the jurors reported that,
   during the training received, they were told that this space could be left
   blank.
   MOE also received reports from the neighborhood of Chapinero indicating that at the Liceo de Cervantes El Retiro post there was a table whose ballots were entirely unsigned
   by the voting juries. This situation is consistent with the information that was
   reported in the afternoon about this irregularity in the same post and that was also
   repeated in Torquigua in the suburb of Engativá.
5. Participation Levels
   According to the consolidated pre-count delivered by the registry in bulletin
   number 22, participation in the capital in the Senate was 35.10%, in the chamber (bulletin number 23) it was 36.55%.

President Ivan Duque, an acolyte of former President Alvaro Uribe and member of his Centro Democrático party has convened an emergency meeting of the National Commission for Electoral Guarantees on March 22. The committee convenes representatives of the electoral administration, the National Registry of Civil Status and the National Electoral Council, by the National Government, political parties and official political movements, and by the Electoral Observers.

Regardless of the results, the fiasco will certainly cast doubt over whatever results from the first round of presidential elections to take place this May.

“Taking into account the responsibility that falls on the National Electoral Council, they are the ones who must guarantee total fidelity and, of course, carry out the corresponding process of challenges,” said Duque.

“With this, we invite this sensible, healthy institutional discussion that, in addition, allows for detailed explanations, gives the country the most absolute clarity of what happened, but also what are the measures that must be adopted. We call for these discrepancies to be resolved in the institutions and with the institutions”, he concluded.

Meanwhile the website of Colombia’s electoral registrar is partially blocked, while the registrar, Alexander Vega says there is no fraud, despite all the irregularities.

“There is no fraud, there is no possibility of committing fraud in Colombia because several actors intervene in the electoral process. The Registrar’s Office, the voting juries, the electoral witnesses and now the scrutinizing commissions of the judges of the republic. In this sense, the inconsistencies are being corrected by the judges of the republic and all the information that has been given is not official information,” said Vega.

Friday, the registry updated the results, announcing new electoral winners and losers. The party of Gustavo Petro, Pacto Historico, grained three more senate seats during the recount underway, now at 19. Duque and Uribe’s Centro Democratico lost a seat. So far, the recount, including the omitted ballots, have boosted the vote count for the opposition by a whopping 390,000 votes.

Regardless of the results, the fiasco will certainly cast doubt over whatever results from the first round of presidential elections to take place this May.